Fight fire with fire: the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibility

The absence of advancement in finding efficient vaccines for several human viruses, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), and herpes simplex viruses (HSVs) despite 30, 40, and even 60 years of research, respectively, is unnerving. Among objective reasons for s...

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Main Author: Vladimir N. Uversky
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Open Exploration Publishing Inc. 2022-10-01
Series:Exploration of Immunology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/ei/Article/100379
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author Vladimir N. Uversky
author_facet Vladimir N. Uversky
author_sort Vladimir N. Uversky
collection DOAJ
description The absence of advancement in finding efficient vaccines for several human viruses, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), and herpes simplex viruses (HSVs) despite 30, 40, and even 60 years of research, respectively, is unnerving. Among objective reasons for such failure are the highly glycosylated nature of proteins used as primary vaccine targets against these viruses and the presence of neotopes and cryptotopes, as well as high mutation rates of the RNA viruses HCV and HIV-1 and the capability to establish latency by HSVs. However, the lack of success in utilization of the structure-based reverse vaccinology for these viruses is likely to be related to the presence of highly flexible and intrinsically disordered regions in human antibodies (Abs) and the major immunogens of HIV-1, HCV, and HSVs, their surface glycoproteins. This clearly calls for moving from the rational structure-based vaccinology to the unstructural vaccinology based on the utilization of tools designed for the analysis of disordered and flexible proteins, while looking at intrinsically disordered viral antigens and their interactions with intrinsically disordered/flexible Abs.
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spelling doaj.art-de704a91cdf941ec903d9584ab682fcc2022-12-22T02:43:44ZengOpen Exploration Publishing Inc.Exploration of Immunology2768-66552022-10-012573174810.37349/ei.2022.00079Fight fire with fire: the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibilityVladimir N. Uversky0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4037-5857Department of Molecular Medicine and USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Research Institute, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USAThe absence of advancement in finding efficient vaccines for several human viruses, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), and herpes simplex viruses (HSVs) despite 30, 40, and even 60 years of research, respectively, is unnerving. Among objective reasons for such failure are the highly glycosylated nature of proteins used as primary vaccine targets against these viruses and the presence of neotopes and cryptotopes, as well as high mutation rates of the RNA viruses HCV and HIV-1 and the capability to establish latency by HSVs. However, the lack of success in utilization of the structure-based reverse vaccinology for these viruses is likely to be related to the presence of highly flexible and intrinsically disordered regions in human antibodies (Abs) and the major immunogens of HIV-1, HCV, and HSVs, their surface glycoproteins. This clearly calls for moving from the rational structure-based vaccinology to the unstructural vaccinology based on the utilization of tools designed for the analysis of disordered and flexible proteins, while looking at intrinsically disordered viral antigens and their interactions with intrinsically disordered/flexible Abs.https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/ei/Article/100379reverse vaccinologyintrinsically disordered proteinantibodyantigenstructural flexibility
spellingShingle Vladimir N. Uversky
Fight fire with fire: the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibility
Exploration of Immunology
reverse vaccinology
intrinsically disordered protein
antibody
antigen
structural flexibility
title Fight fire with fire: the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibility
title_full Fight fire with fire: the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibility
title_fullStr Fight fire with fire: the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibility
title_full_unstemmed Fight fire with fire: the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibility
title_short Fight fire with fire: the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibility
title_sort fight fire with fire the need for a vaccine based on intrinsic disorder and structural flexibility
topic reverse vaccinology
intrinsically disordered protein
antibody
antigen
structural flexibility
url https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/ei/Article/100379
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