Role of Immunoinformatics in Accelerating Epitope-Based Vaccine Development against Dengue Virus

Abstract

Dengue Fever (DF) has emerged as a significant public health problem of international concern with its high prevalence in the tropic and subtropical regions. Dengue Virus (DENV), which is the cause of DF, consists of four serotypes of antigenically distinct viruses. The immense variation and limited identity similarity at the amino acid level lead to a problematic challenge in the development of an efficacious vaccine. Fortunately, the extensively available immunological data, the advance in antigenic peptide prediction, and the incorporation of molecular docking and dynamics simulation in immunoinformatics have directed the vaccine development towards the rational design of the epitope-based vaccine. Here, we point out the current state of dengue epidemiology and the recent development in vaccine development. Subsequently, we provide a systematic review of our validated method and tools for B- and T-cell epitope prediction as well as the use of molecular docking and dynamics in evaluating epitope affinity and stability in the discovery of a new tetravalent dengue vaccine through computational epitope-based vaccine design.