Epitope identification of rabies virus nucleoprotein using immunoinformatics approach

Background Rabies is a deadly and preventable disease. The nucleoprotein of rabies virus has been found to have group-specific antigenic determinants. The rabies virus nucleoprotein can shield dogs and mice from the lethal infection. Early diagnosis of rabies is crucial for the prevention of rabies. Methods In this study, B-cell epitopes of the nucleoprotein gene of the rabies virus were identified, and the characteristics of the epitopes were analyzed using various bioinformatics tools, such as the immune epitope database's Bepipred Major Histocompatibility Complex II (IEDB MHC II) prediction tool, NetCTL 1.2, Vaxijen v20, AllerTOP v2.0 server. Results Fourteen epitopes were predicted in the nucleoprotein sequence of the rabies virus. We observed that B-cell epitopes have a high affinity for binding to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II. Notably, the selected strain's conserved region yielded a total of thirty weak binders and eight strong binders, all exhibiting a binding affinity with allele H-2-IAb. The study also ventured into antigenicity, allergenicity, and toxicity predictions. Three of the ten peptides were identified as potential allergens, while the remaining seven were classified as non-allergens. Interestingly, none of the peptides were found to be toxic. Conclusion B cells are a critical component of adaptive immunity, producing neutralizing antibodies, and are crucial in blocking viral entry and attachment. Henceforth, epitopes identified in this study can be utilized to produce monoclonal antibodies or vaccines for therapeutic purposes. The discovered epitope is a functional potential repertoire for developing serodiagnostic tests and epitope-based peptide vaccines.