A Highly Immunogenic and Cross-Reactive Multi-Epitope Vaccine Candidate Against Duck Hepatitis A Virus: Immunoinformatics Design and Preliminary Experimental Validation.

ABSTRACT: Duck viral hepatitis (DVH), a highly contagious disease, is caused primarily by duck hepatitis A virus (DHAV). The viral genotypes exhibit significant diversity, creating a challenge as monovalent vaccines fail to provide cross-genotype protection in ducklings. This study aimed to design a multi-epitope peptide vaccine targeting different genotypes of DHAV. Using immunoinformatics approaches, we systematically identified key antigenic determinants, including linear B-cell epitopes, cytotoxic T-cell epitopes (CTL), and helper T-cell epitopes (HTL). Based on these, a novel vaccine candidate was developed. The vaccine construct was subjected to rigorous computational validation: (1) Molecular docking with Toll-like receptors (TLRs) predicted immune interaction potential. (2) Molecular dynamic

SUBMITTER: Yang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12652605 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature