Epitope-based immunoinformatics and molecular docking studies of Nucleocapsid protein (NP) and Ovarian Tumor (OTU) domain of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV)

Pappu Srinivasan*¹, Sivakumar Prasanth Kumar¹, Muthusamy Karthikeyan¹, Jayaram Jeyakanthan¹, Yogesh T. Jasrai², Himanshu A. Pandya², Rakesh M. Rawal³ and Saumya K. Patel²

¹Department of Bioinformatics, Alagappa University, Tamil Nadu, India.

²Department of Botany, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Gujarat, India.

³Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacogenomics, Department of Cancer Biology, The Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute (GCRI), Gujarat, India.

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http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/Abstract.aspx?s=1267&name=bioinformatics%20and%20computational%20biology&ART_DOI=10.3389/fgene.2011.00072

Citation: Srinivasan P, Prasanth kumar S, Karthikeyan M, Jeyakanthan J,
Jasrai YT, Pandya HA, Rawal RM and Patel SK(2011) Epitope-based
immunoinformatics and molecular docking studies of Nucleocapsid
protein (NP) and Ovarian Tumor (OTU) domain of Crimean-Congo
haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV). 2:72.doi:10.3389/fgene.2011.00072

Abstract

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), the fatal human pathogen is transmitted to humans by tick bite, or exposure to infected blood or tissues of infected livestock. The CCHFV genome consists of three RNA segments namely, S, M, and L.  The unusually large viral L protein has an ovarian tumor (OTU) protease domain located in the N terminus. It is likely that the protein may be autoproteolytically cleaved to generate the active virus L polymerase with additional functions. Identification of the epitope regions of the virus is important for the diagnosis, phylogeny studies and drug discovery. Early diagnosis and treatment of CCHF infection is critical to the survival of patients and the control of the disease. In this study, we undertook different in silico approaches using molecular docking and immunoinformatic tools to predict epitopes which can be helpful for vaccine designing. Small molecule ligands against OTU domain and protein-protein interaction between a viral and a host protein have been studied using docking tools. 

Keywords: CCHFV, Crimean-Congo Virus, OTU domain, Polymerase, in silico, ligand docking