An in silico approach to design a multi-epitope vaccine against small ruminant lentiviruses causing Maedi-Visna and caprine arthritis encephalitis in sheep and goats

Abstract

Small ruminant lentiviruses are common viral pathogens affecting livestock, primarily sheep and goats, and are responsible for chronic and fatal diseases such as Maedi- Visna and caprine arthritis encephalitis. These infections compromise livestock productivity. Developing a safe and effective vaccine that provides broad protection across host species remains a major challenge. Consequently, we employed different bioinformatics tools to design a novel multi-epitope vaccine construct based on the envelope gene of the causative lentiviruses. The secondary and tertiary structures of the construct were predicted and subsequently refined. The stability and binding affinity of the vaccine construct were evaluated using advanced computational approaches, including molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation. Also, the immunogenic potential was assessed through immune simulation studies, followed by codon optimization and in silico cloning. However, in vivo studies are required in the near future to confirm the vaccine construct’s efficacy and immunogenicity.

Keywords

Reverse vaccinology / Small ruminant lentiviruses / Molecular docking / Molecular dynamics simulation

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