Selection-based design of in silico dengue epitope ensemble vaccines

Abstract

Dengue virus affects approximately 130 countries. 25% of infections result in febrile, self‐limiting illness; heterotypic infection results in potentially fatal Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever or Dengue Shock Syndrome. Only one vaccine is currently available. Its efficacy is very variable. Thus, to target Dengue, we used an innovative immunoinformatic protocol to design a putative epitope ensemble vaccine by selecting an optimal set of highly‐conserved epitopes with experimentally‐verified immunogenicity. From 1597 CD4+ and MHC II epitopes, 6 MHC Class I epitopes (RAVHADMGYW, GPWHLGKLEM, GLYGNGVVTK, NMIIMDEAHF, KTWAYHGSY, WAYHGSYEV) and 9 MHC Class II epitopes (LAKAIFKLTYQNKVV, GKIVGLYGNGVVTTS, AAIFMTATPPGSVEA, AAIFMTATPPGTADA, GKTVWFVPSIKAGND, KFWNTTIAVSMANIF, RAIWYMWLGARYLEF, VGTYGLNTFTNMEVQ, WTLMYFHRRDLRLAA) were selected; this candidate vaccine achieved a world population coverage of 92.49%.