Immunoinformatics Approach for Glycoprotein B-based Vaccine Candidate Design Against Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus

Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus (ILTV) poses a highly contagious upper respiratory tract illness and is regarded as a major concern for the poultry industry worldwide. Considering the emergence of novel virulent variants of ILTVs, the development of novel vaccines is needed to control the disease. This study was carried out based on immunoinformatics and vaccinology strategies to introduce an effective ILTV vaccine candidate targeting glycoprotein B (gB).

Both T-cell and B-cell epitopes of the gB protein with the potential to induce immune responses were identified. The highly antigenic and immunogenic PH-1 domain was selected as the potential vaccine candidate. The physiochemical properties and tertiary structure model of the domain were predicted, refined, and validated. The resulting high‐quality model was applied for docking analyses with toll‐like receptor 2. The affinity of the vaccine candidate to bind with the immune receptor and generate the appropriate immune responses was calculated based on the free energy level.

The results indicated the PH-1 domain of ILTV gB protein to be immunogenic and was effective in stimulating the T helper, T cytotoxic, and B cells. The domain showed high-affinity binding and stability with the TLR2 immune receptor.

Collectively, this research provides an immunogenic candidate for designing a protein-based vaccine against ILTV. The efficacy of the construct should be examined in lab settings and in animal models.