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Background: Poultry industries play an important role in the human food supply. Newcastle disease virus (NDV), Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), and Avian influenza virus (AIV) can cause epizootic outbreaks in poultry industries and lead to extensive economic losses. Furthermore, these viruses can also infect wild birds, and avian influenza virus is a serious threat to humans. Here, a multiepitope vaccine has been designed to induce an immune response against IBV, NDV, and AIV using extensive bioinformatics tools. Methods: To do so, the antigenic proteins, including the hemagglutinin of H5 and H7 subtypes of AIV, nucleocapsid and spike proteins of IBV, and fusion and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase proteins of NDV, have been studied to find immunodominant epitopes with MHC-I/MHC-II binding potential. Four antigenic and non-allergenic epitopes from each antigenic protein were connected to avian beta-defensin 1 as an adjuvant to construct the multiepitope vaccine. To investigate the potential of vaccine-induced activation of toll-like receptors (TLR-2, 5), the tertiary structure of the vaccine was modeled and docked to TLR-2/5 proteins. Results: Evaluation of the physicochemical properties of the vaccine construct has demonstrated the stability and solubility of the vaccine upon overexpression. The vaccine construct demonstrated antigenicity and was specified as a non-allergenic protein. The vaccine can induce significant cellular and humoral immune responses, and TLR proteins can recognize the vaccine in its three-dimensional form. Conclusion: Overall, the multiepitope vaccine designed in the present study against IBV, NDV, and AIV shows significant immunological potential that should be further investigated in wet laboratory experiments.
Morteza Ghandadi (Thu,) studied this question.