Mapping targets of immune responses in complete dengue viral genomes

Abstract

Dengue infection is caused by the mosquito-borne dengue virus (DENV). Approximately 50-100 million cases of dengue infection are reported annually with 20,000 deaths worldwide. Currently, there is no effective vaccine available. Developing a vaccine against DENV is a challenging task because of the antigenic variation in DENVs and the diversity of the immune system within the human population. Understanding variation, both in the immune system and DENV, is necessary for dengue vaccine formulation. Bioinformatics approach is necessary for the study of large number of dengue antigen sequences, in the context of the human immune responses, for better understanding of viral antigenic diversity and to aid in vaccine research. The objectives of this thesis are application of a systematic bioinformatics approach to map potential targets of cellular immune responses in DENV sequence data and explore for ways to deal with antigenic diversity.