IJSRP, Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2015 Edition [ISSN 2250-3153]
Vidhya R. V, Achuthsankar S. Nair, Pawan K. Dhar, Anuraj Nayarisseri
Abstract:
Pathogenic aspects of Chikungunya virus requires detailed study in order to develop drugs for controlling the outspread of Chikungunya infection. Previously it has been identified that Chikungunya viral envelope 1 and 2 proteins (E1 and E2) and the nonstructural protein 2 (nsP2) are involved in CHIKV pathogenesis. In this study, a reverse vaccinology approach has been used to elucidate the epitopic peptides associated with the envelope protein E2 of CHIKV. The study characterizes as well as maps B cell and T cell epitopes of the protein using various bioinformatics tools. Further, the predicted epitopes were modeled and docked with human receptors (2X40 and 1DLH) to analyze the binding affinities. The epitopes with high binding affinities for human receptors were identified as effective epitopes. We anticipate that the peptides identified as most effective epitopes from this study can be considered for designing epitope-based vaccines against Chikungunya disease.