Artificial Intelligence-Guided Design of some Pan-H5N1-clade 2.3.4.4b Mosaic DNA-based vaccines to combat the circulating HPAI in birds

The presently used vaccines do not offer solid immunity/protection against the currently circulating strains of the H5N1 viruses. We aim to design a pan H5N1 vaccine that protects birds against the presently circulating clade 2.3.4.4b in chicken. We used AI tools, including epitope mapping, molecular docking, and immune simulation, to design a multiepitope DNA vaccine including the top-ranked B and T cell epitopes within four major proteins (HA, NA, NP, and M2) of the H%N1 clade 2.3.4.4b. We selected the top-ranked 12 epitopes and linked them together using linkers. The designed vaccine is linked to IL-18 as an adjuvant. The molecular docking results showed a high binding affinity of this vaccine construct with the chicken alleles. The immune simulation results showed that the designed vaccine has the potential to stimulate the host immune response, including antibody and cell-mediated immunity in chickens and other birds. We believe this vaccine is going to be a universal vaccine that offers good protection not only to chickens but also to different species of birds against the HPAI- H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b. Further studies are required to validate this vaccine candidate in chickens.