Targeted Immunization Strategies and Designing Vaccine against Indian Nipah Virus Strain (NiV B) and Malaysian Variant (NiV M)

International Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation, 2024; 14(4).
Published: In Press
Type: Original Article

Authors: 

Naseera Kannanthodi Pariyapurath¹, Selvaraj Jagannathan^1,* , Maghimaa Mathanmohun^2,*, Sarika Baburajan Pillai¹, Kavitha Dhandapani³, Rahul Gandhi Pachamuthu⁴, Shivanandappa Kukkaler Channappa¹, Sivakumar Sakthivel¹, Hemapriya Namassivayam²

¹Department of Microbiology, Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

²Centre for Global Health Research, Saveetha Medical College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences,Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

³Department of Biochemistry, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, INDIA.

⁴Department of Nanoscience and Technology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, INDIA.

ABSTRACT

Background: Nipah virus is a deadly infectious virus that was first isolated and identified from Malaysia. Since then, a number of Nipah virus outbreaks have been reported from Bangladesh and India. Transmission of the disease occurs through Pteropus genus fruit bats. The case fatality rate of this infection is very high when compared with other viral zoonoses. At present, there are no approved vaccines or drugs available to prevent or treat this infection. A number of studies are ongoing to develop an efficient vaccine candidate to combat this deadly virus. The majority of them concentrate on the structural and non-structural proteins, which are the main targets of neutralizing antibodies. Materials and Methods: Here, we analyzed the genome sequence identity of two Nipah virus strains, Indian and Malaysian, and also the amino acid identity between the two structural proteins (Attachment glycoprotein G and Fusion protein F) and one non-structural protein (W protein) of those two strains. Results and Discussion: It was found that there is a considerable amount of nucleotide sequence homology between the initial strain that originated from Malaysia and the strain that is now found in India. Furthermore, the Structural and Non-structural proteins of these two strains exhibit a high degree of similarity. Conclusion: Hence, a vaccine candidate designed using either NiV M or NiV B can be effectively used as a potent vaccine.

Keywords: Zoonoses, Structural and Non-structural proteins, Glycoprotein, Fusion protein, W protein Neutralizing antibodies.