title: Computational prediction of immunodominant antigenic regions & potential protective epitopes for dengue vaccination.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Epitope-based vaccines (EVs) are specific, safe and easy to produce. However, vaccine failure has been frequently reported due to variation within epitopic regions. Therefore, development of vaccines based on conserved epitopes may prevent such vaccine failure. This study was undertaken to identify highly conserved antigenic regions in the four dengue serotypes to produce an epitope-based dengue vaccine.
  
  
  METHODS
  Polyprotein sequences of all four dengue serotypes were collected and aligned using MAFFT multiple sequence alignment plugin with Geneious Pro v6.1. Consensus sequences of the polyproteins for all four dengue serotypes were designed and screened against experimentally proven epitopes to predict potential antigenic regions that are conserved among all four dengue serotypes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The antigenic region VDRGWGNGCGLFGKG was 100 per cent conserved in the consensus polyprotein sequences of all four dengue serotypes. Fifteen experimentally proven epitopes were identical to the immunodominant antigenic region.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Computationally predicted antigenic regions may be considered for use in the development of EVs for protection against dengue virus. Such vaccines would be expected to provide protection against dengue infections caused by all dengue serotypes because these would contain antigenic regions highly conserved across those serotypes. Therefore, the immunodominant antigenic region (VDRGWGNGCGLFGKG) and 15 potential epitopes may be considered for use in dengue vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India.
authors.forename: Karthikeyan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Muthusamy
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India.
authors.forename: Krishnasamy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gopinath
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, India.
authors.forename: Dharmalingam
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nandhini
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D019295:Computational Biology; D003715:Dengue / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D053059:Dengue Vaccines / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D006801:Humans; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D053059:Dengue Vaccines; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins