Designing a novel multi-epitope chimeric vaccine candidate for human papillomavirus by vaccinomic approach

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) with small size and double-stranded DNA is the most important cause of sexually transmitted infections and cervical carcinoma. Controlling the spread of papillomavirus infection and protecting people against the pathogenicity of this virus are key steps in reducing the number of cervical cancer patients. One of the effective ways to achieve this goal is to design a suitable vaccine. In the present study, computer-aided methods were used to suggest a potential vaccine candidate against HPV.

Oncoproteins L1 and E5 of the high-risk strain HPV 16 were utilized to predict the linear B-cell epitopes, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), and helper T lymphocytes (HTL) epitopes. From the obtained epitopes, non-allergenic and non-toxic peptides with acceptable antigenicity were selected and subsequently converted into 3D structures. The epitopes were subjected to molecular docking using the PDB format. In the next step, short amino acid sequences as spacers were used to join peptides together. Finally, computational analysis including allergenicity and antigenicity studies, physicochemical properties, secondary and tertiary structure prediction, molecular interaction pattern, and cloning analyses were conducted for the vaccine construct.

Our findings revealed that the designed vaccine with suitable antigenicity and physicochemical properties, shows proper interaction with four types of Toll-like receptors (TLR3, TLR4, TLR5, and TLR8), and Escherichia coli (strain K12) is the suitable host for it.

Overall, the vaccine designed in the present study showed a promising immune response. However, further validation through laboratory investigations is required.