Exploring NS3/4A, NS5A and NS5B proteins to design conserved subunit multi-epitope vaccine against HCV utilizing immunoinformatics approaches.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) vaccines, designed to augment specific T-cell responses, have been designated as an important aspect of effective antiviral treatment. However, despite the current satisfactory progress of these vaccines, extensive past efforts largely remained unsuccessful in mediating clinically relevant anti-HCV activity in humans. In this study, we used a series of immunoinformatics approaches to propose a multiepitope vaccine against HCV by prioritizing 16 conserved epitopes from three viral proteins (i.e., NS34A, NS5A, and NS5B). The prioritised epitopes were tested for their possible antigenic combinations with each other along with linker AAY using structural modelling and epitope-epitope interactions analysis. An adjuvant (β-defensin) at the N-terminal of the construct was

SUBMITTER: Ikram A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6208421 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature