Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ARCENG III. INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CONGRESS, İstanbul, Türkiye, 1 - 02 Şubat 2025, ss.145-160
Nipah virus is a highly contagious pathogen that causes severe infections in both humans and animals, yet no specific vaccine has been developed to date. To address this gap, our study utilized bioinformatics approaches to identify potential vaccine targets, aiming to facilitate the development of an effective vaccine. The Füzyon protein (F), attachment protein (G), and Matriks protein (M), known for their critical roles in viral entry, replication, and assembly, were selected as primary targets for analysis. Our research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, we thoroughly evaluated the potential of F, G, and M Proteinler as vaccine candidates. In the second phase, we investigated whether epitopes derived from these Proteinlers could serve as viable components in vaccine development, employing various bioinformatics tools. The analysis revealed that the F, G, and M Proteinler, due to their physical and chemical properties, were not suitable as direct vaccine candidates. However, specific epitopes derived from these proteins demonstrated characteristics that make them promising vaccine components. Among these, the G protein-derived FLLKNKIWCI epitope showed the highest antigenicity score (2.0045). Nevertheless, its positive hydrophobicity score (0.07) precluded its inclusion in iMODS and MD simulation studies. Instead, two epitopes RRNNAIAFNL from the G protein and LEFRRNNAIAFNLL from the M protein were identified as strong candidates due to their favorable physicochemical attributes. It has also been determined that these epitopes, in addition to their advantages such as being non-toxic, highly soluble in water, non-allergenic to humans, and possessing high antigenicity scores, have average IC50 scores, low percentile ranks, and an adequate number of protease cleavage sites. In summary, our findings provide valuable insights into the development of peptide-based vaccines targeting the Nipah virus. However, as these conclusions are based on in silico analyses, experimental validation is essential to confirm the efficacy and functionality of the proposed epitopes