Identification of T cell and B cell epitopes against Indian HCV-genotype-3a for vaccine development- An in silico analysis

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects almost 150 million people and is a leading cause of liver disease worldwide. It has been classified into seven genotypes; the most common genotype affecting Indian population is genotype 3 (60-70%). Currently there is no vaccine for any genotype of HCV. In order to develop peptide based vaccine against HCV, it is important to identify the conservancy in the circulating genotypes, along with the Human Leucocyte Antigen (HLA) alleles in the target population. The present study aims to identify conserved CD4 and CD8 T cells and B cell epitopes against Indian HCV-genotype-3a using an in silico analysis. In the present study, 28 promiscuous CD4 T cell epitopes and some CD8 epitopes were identified. The NS4 region was predicted to be the most antigenic with maximum number of conserved and promiscuous CD4 T cell epitopes and CD8 T cell epitopes having strong and intermediate affinity towards a number of HLA alleles prevalent in Indian population. Additionally, some linear B cell epitopes were also identified, which could generate neutralizing antibodies. In order to ascertain the binding pattern of the identified epitopes with HLA alleles, molecular docking analysis was carried out. The authors suggest further experimental validation to investigate the immunogenicity of the identified epitopes.