In silico design of a multi-epitope vaccine targeting 60 kDa heat shock protein of hepatitis C virus

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus is a type of viral hepatitis which primarily affects the liver and it causes liver swelling, failure and liver cancer. This research paper details the in-silico- design of a multi-epitope vaccine aimed at the 60 kDa heat shock protein, shows suitable antigenic characteristics against Hepatitis C virus. The procedure of in silico design of vaccine used computational technique to search Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes (CTL), Helper T Lymphocytes (HTL), B cell epitope. Each of the epitope from CTL, HTL and B-cell underwent evaluation for their antigenicity, allergenicity and toxicity and find out the suitable candidates. Linkers were used to connect the suitable epitope with the amino acid sequence. By using homology modeling the structural and biochemical stability were confirmed. Molecular docking shows strong binding interactions between the vaccine and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Immune simulation predict the development of antibodies and the memory cells. All the results suggest that the proposed vaccination has potential for addressing Hepatitis C, pending additional validation for both in vivo and in vitro.