Systematic Bioinformatic Approach for Prediction of Linear B-Cell Epitopes on Dengue E and prM Protein.

B-cell epitopes on the envelope (E) and premembrane (prM) proteins of dengue virus (DENV) were predicted using bioinformatics tools, BepiPred, Ellipro, and SVMTriP. Predicted epitopes, 32 and 17 for E and prM proteins, respectively, were then characterized for their level of conservations. The epitopes, EP4/E (48-55), epitope number 4 of E protein at amino acids 48-55, EP9/E (165-182), EP11/E (218-233), EP20/E (322-349), EP21/E (326-353), EP23/E (356-365), and EP25/E (380-386), showed a high intraserotype conservancy with very low pan-serotype conservancy, demonstrating a potential target as serotype specific diagnostic markers. EP3 (30-41) located in domain-I and EP26/E (393-409), EP27/E (416-435), EP28/E (417-430) located in the stem region of E protein, and EP8/prM (93-112) from the prM protein have a pan-serotype conservancy higher than 70%. These epitopes indicate a potential use as universal vaccine candidates, subjected to verification of their potential in viral neutralization. EP2/E (16-21), EP5/E (62-123), EP6/E (63-89), EP19/E (310-329), and EP24/E (371-402), which have more than 50% pan-serotype conservancies, were found on E protein regions that are important in host cell attachment. Previous studies further show evidence for some of these epitopes to generate cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies, indicating their importance in antiviral strategies for DENV. This study suggests that bioinformatic approaches are attractive first line of screening for identification of linear B-cell epitopes.