Computer-aided design and evaluation of a multi-epitope vaccine for egg allergy

An unfavorable immunological reaction of exposure to allergens presents in egg white or egg yolk is referred to as an egg allergy. Hen eggs are the second most prevalent food allergen after cow milk, causing 1.6% to 8.9% of food allergies in newborns and young children. Developing a vaccine against egg allergy seems appropriate. Hence, in this in-silico analysis, epitopes were found in five important egg proteins namely ovalbumin, lysozyme, ovomucoid, ovomucin and ovotransferrin. The predicted T- and B-cell epitopes were evaluated for their efficiency to stimulate immune system and used to build a multiprotein multi-epitope vaccine. Adjuvants were added in the vaccine to boost the vaccine’s antigenicity. The designed vaccine construct was of 615 amino acid length with the molecular weight of 65.878 KDa and immunoinformatic tools predicted it as soluble, antigenic, non-allergenic, and non-toxic, which are desirable properties of a vaccine.