Search for immunogenic epitopes in the structure of major antigens of the Newcastle disease virus

Abstract

Newcastle Disease (ND) is a highly contagious viral infection of birds that causes significant economic losses in the poultry industry. Traditional whole-virion vaccines often fail to provide crossneutralizing im-munity, emphasizing the need for innovative approaches to the design of new vaccine candidates. Conducting a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis of VBN representatives is necessary to achieve such goals as the creation of new candidate vaccines with a broad spectrum of protection, including DIVA-compatible ones, increasing the specificity and sensitivity of diagnostic tools, as well as overcoming the problem of antigenic drift, which will allow for the rapid adaptation of the composition of vaccines and diagnostics in accordance with the current epizootic situation. In this study, a bioinformatic analysis of the proteomes of the major Newcastle disease virus (NDV) antigens — the F and HN proteins — was carried out to identify potential immunogenic epitopes. Using sequences of var-ious viral strains circulating in Russia and neighboring countries, deposited in the GenBank database, both B-cell and T-cell epitopes were identified. The applied prediction algorithms showed that the regions with the highest epitope density are associated with critical functional domains of the proteins involved in viral membrane fusion and host receptor recognition. The results indicate high potential immunogenicity of several identified sequences. Information on epitope local-ization and antigenicity assessment serves as a foundation for further studies aimed at developing recombinant vaccines and highly specific diagnostic tools, which are key to effective control of ND spread in bird populations. This study highlights the importance of a targeted approach to vaccine design under the condi-tions of continuous antigenic evolution of the virus.