In-silico Innovative mRNA Vaccine Development Using Multi-Epitopes of SopD Protein for Enteric Fever Caused by Salmonella enterica

An increase in antibiotic resistance has created significant challenges in treating Salmonella enterica infections. Consequently, various vaccines have been developed as practical alternatives to antibiotics for preventing S. enterica infections. mRNA vaccine technology is rapidly advancing as a replacement for conventional methods due to its high efficiency, low cost, and ability to elicit a strong humoral immune response. This research aims to develop a novel mRNA vaccine against S. enterica using immunoinformatics approaches. The protein SopD was selected, and its suitable epitopes were identified. These epitopes were evaluated to ensure they are antigenic, non-allergenic, and non-toxic. Subsequently, the epitopes were linked using appropriate linkers to create a vaccine construct. This construct was further analyzed and subjected to molecular docking with the Toll-like receptor TLR3 using the HDock server. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations showed that the vaccine construct is stable based on RMSD and RMSF parameters. Immune simulation indicated the vaccine’s efficacy, and it was successfully cloned using the SnapGene tool. Finally, a multi-epitope protein was modeled and optimized. The results demonstrated that the vaccine construct is effective, non-allergenic, non-toxic, and successfully cloned. Overall, the findings suggest that the designed mRNA vaccine construct could be a promising candidate for S. enterica treatment, pending validation through in vitro techniques such as ELISA and in vivo testing in animal models.