Hepatitis C Virus Subtype 3a Envelope Protein 1 Binding with Human Leukocyte Antigen Class I Types of Pakistani Population: Candidate Epitopes for Synthetic Peptide Vaccine

The object of this cross sectional study was to determine the HCV subtype 3a envelope protein binding affinity with Human Leukocyte Antigen. Envelope 1 (E1) protein is one of the structural proteins responsible for entering the cells through the receptors. The binding affinity of E1 protein epitopes to the selected Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) class I alleles was investigated using the computer-based tools. These prediction tools were also used to design the synthetic vaccine’s candidate epitopes and to identify the individuals/populations who are likely to be responder to those vaccines.The mean frequency of HLA I antigens in Pakistani population was calculated. Three alleles each from HLA A and B were selected. E1 protein sequence extracted from HCV 3a isolates was retrieved and twenty-four sequences of it were selected. NetMHCcons 1.0 server was used to determine the binding affinities of HLA alleles to the epitope sequences of 10 amino acids in length.A02, A03, A11, A24, A33, B08, B13, B15, B35 and B40 were the first five antigens more prevalent in Pakistan each from HLA A and HLA B.. We did not find any binding affinity between HLA A*201, B*1501 and B*4001 and epitopes from E1 sequences in a threshold of 50 nM. Totally five various epitopes derived from different isolates were characterized.The prediction of HLA-E1 epitope specific bindings and the forthcoming response can be a useful bioinformatics tool to uncover the right synthetic peptides for vaccine design purposes.