Immunoinformatics Vaccine Targeting S1-NTD and HA2 Against SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza

Background: two of the most challenging viruses for vaccine development are sars-cov-2, causing the current covid-19 pandemic, and influenza virus (h1n1), which spreads annually, causing seasonal epidemics or increasing the pandemic risk. materials and methods: in this study, we analyzed the immunodominant epitope regions in fusion peptides consisting of the spike_s1_ n-terminal domain from sars-cov-2 in frame to hemagglutinin h2 (ha2) gene from influenza a virus (h1n1) and also human ifnɣ gene by two (g4s)3 linkers. a comprehensive analysis based on immunoinformatic has been conducted on prediction servers to predict t- and b-cell epitopes. in silico cloning and expression in pet-28(+) expression vector and vaccine optimization were assessed. the overall model quality was accessed, and the docking or binding affinity of the designed vaccine to the toll-like receptor 3 was analyzed. results: the efficiency of the constructed vaccine confirmed by appropriate expression of the designed vaccine candidate tested by in silico cloning in pet–28(+) vector and codon optimization might increase the production of vaccine candidate into escherichia coli strain k-12. conclusion: in conclusion, we suggest that this fusion peptide would be an attractive design strategy for developing a bivalent vaccine against covid-19 and influenza as promising vaccine candidates without the need to reformulate or vaccinate each year.