Targeting ‘immunogenic hotspots' in Dengue and Zika virus: an in silico approach to a common vaccine candidate

Aim: Dengue and Zika viruses cause significant mortality globally. Considering high sequence similarity between the viral proteins, we designed common multi-epitope vaccine candidates against these pathogens. Methods: We identified multiple T and B cell epitope-rich conserved ‘immunogenic hotspots' from highly antigenic and phylogenetically related viral proteins and used these to design the multi-epitope vaccine (MEV) candidates, ensuring high global population coverage. Results: Four MEV candidates containing conserved immunogenic hotspots from E and NS5 proteins with the highest structural integrity could favorably interact with TLR4-MD2 complex in molecular docking studies, indicating activation of TLR-mediated immune responses. MEVs also induced memory responses in silico, hallmarks of a good vaccine candidate. Conclusion: Conserved immunogenic hotspots can be utilized to design cross-protective MEV candidates. Plain language summary Dengue and Zika viruses cause significant illness globally. Interestingly, they belong to the same family of viruses and therefore are closely related to each other. The immune response developed against one can often protect against the other or in some cases exacerbate the infection. Considering these characteristics of these viruses, we have designed a common vaccine candidate using bioinformatics-based tools, taking care to exclude the infection enhancing factors. Tweetable abstract Common multi-epitope vaccine candidates against Dengue viral strains and Zika virus have been designed in silico by utilizing multiple T and B-cell epitope-rich ‘immunogenic hotspots', derived from the most antigenic and phylogenetically-related conserved proteins.