Abstract

Introduction: Human Bocavirus 1 (HBOV1) is a single-stranded DNA virus discovered in 2005 in nasopharyngeal specimens. It is a pathogenic virus that infects respiratory epithelial cells causing respiratory tract infection in children younger than 5 years of age. The main antigen of the virus is the capsid protein VP2. Aims: In this study we aimed to identify B- and T- cell epitopes in the VP2 protein of the Boca virus using in silico methodology.  Methods: The VP2 sequence in FASTA format was obtained from the Uniprot database. VP2 antigenicity was calculated through the Vaxijen v. 2.0 server. Linear as well as non-linear B-cell epitopes were found using the ElliPro tool of the IEDB bioinformatics database. MHC class I and II epitopes were identified with the Vaxitop tool of the Vaxign system. MHC I were further tested for their immunogenicity using the IEDB's immunogenicity tool, while MHC II were tested for their ability to produce IFN-? using the IFNepitope server. The antigenicity of the predicted B- and T-cell epitopes was re-examined via Vaxijen and the peptides that were identified as potential antigens were individually tested for the risk of allergenicity and toxicity as well as the possibility of inducing autoimmunity via the AllerTOP v. 2.0, Toxin Pred and Peptide Match tools respectively. Results: Our immunoinformatics analysis resulted in the identification of 5 linear B-cell epitopes and 12 T-cell epitopes which were found to fulfill prerequisites for vaccine design. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that VP2 is a promising vaccine target against the Boca Virus and should be further investigated experimentally.