Browsing by Author "Pilla Barroso, Annette Margarita"

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    DISEÑO IN SILICO DE PROTEÍNA MULTIEPITOPOS ESPECÍFICA DE OROPOUCHE PARA INMUNODIAGNÓSTICO DIFERENCIAL EN ZONAS ENDÉMICAS
    (2026-07-02) Pilla Barroso, Annette Margarita; Salazar Garcés, Luis Fabián; Universidad Técnica de Ambato / Facultad de Ciencias de Salud / Carrera de Laboratorio Clínico
    Oropouche virus (OROV) is an emerging arbovirus of increasing public health concern in the Americas due to its geographic expansion, reemergence in several South American countries, and recent detection in Ecuador. Its clinical manifestations closely resemble those of other arboviral infections, including dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya, making differential diagnosis challenging and contributing to underreporting, particularly in endemic regions with limited access to specific diagnostic tools. In this context, the present study was conducted within the research field of biotechnology and immunoinformatics applied to infectious disease diagnosis. The objective of this study was to design and validate in silico a multiepitope protein specific to Oropouche virus with potential application in differential immunodiagnosis. A quantitative in silico experimental approach was employed using bioinformatics and immunoinformatics tools. The amino acid sequence of the OROV M-segment polyprotein (accession number UYI36405) was retrieved from the NCBI Protein database. Linear B-cell epitopes were predicted using ABCPred and subsequently filtered according to antigenicity, allergenicity, and toxicity criteria through VaxiJen v2.0, AllerTOP v2.1, and ToxinPred. The selected epitopes were assembled into a multiepitope construct, followed by structural modeling, computational validation, and codon optimization for heterologous expression in Escherichia coli. The resulting construct contained six selected epitopes and exhibited favorable antigenicity, structural stability, non-toxic properties, and low similarity to other cocirculating arboviruses. The scientific novelty of this research lies in the proposal of a computationally designed OROV-specific multiepitope protein as a potential antigenic candidate for the future development of differential immunoassays, contributing to improved diagnosis and epidemiological surveillance of this emerging arboviral disease.