Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is caused by pathogenic organisms and is typically exacerbated by stress factors such as the environment, nutrition, transportation, and commingling with cattle from various herds [1]. Bovine coronavirus (BCV) is now generally recognized as a major cause of neonatal calf diarrhoea [2]. The disease affects the respiratory tract of cattle and has been linked with different syndromes in cattle: calf diarrhoea, winter dysentery in adult cattle, and respiratory infection in cattle of different age groups [3–8]. BCoV can significantly economically impact the veterinary industry [9]. The bovine coronavirus (BCoV) is a member of a family of microorganisms that causes intestinal and respiratory disease in a variety of mammalian and avian species. BCoV's function in calf hood diarrhoea is well-established, and it remains a problem in calf-rearing enterprises (10). Along with wild ruminant CoVs, porcine hemagglutinating encephalomyelitis virus, equine coronavirus, HCoV-OC43, HECoV-44, and canine respiratory coronavirus, bovine coronavirus (BCoV) belongs to the species Betacoronavirus 1 (subgenus Embecovirus) of the Betacoronavirus genus. In the Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex, BCoV is a major pathogen. Viral particles are big (100–150 nm), pleomorphic, and contain four key structural proteins: a membrane (M) glycoprotein, an envelope (E) glycoprotein, a spike (S) glycoprotein, and a hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) glycoprotein [5, 11, 12].
Bovine coronavirus BCoV is pleomorphic and enclosed, with a diameter varying from 65 to 210 nm with a double layer of short (hemagglutinin) and long (spike) surface projections. The big genome is made up of 27 to 32 kb of single-stranded positive-sense RNA that codes for five main structural proteins. The 50-kDa nucleocapsid (N) is the most conserved among them, making it a popular target for viral RNA detection techniques. 29 The presence of a surface hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) glycoprotein (120–140 kDa) is unique to some group 2 CoVs, including BCoV and wild ruminant CoVs. To reverse hemagglutination, the HE operates as a receptor-destroying enzyme (esterase) [11, 12].
Bovine coronavirus (BCoV), like other coronavirus (CoVs), has an outer-surface S glycoprotein (190 kDa). It is made up of two subunits, one of which carries the dominant neutralizing epitopes and the other of which mediates viral membrane fusion. Because HE and S proteins elicit neutralizing antibodies that can prevent viral attachment and infectivity, they are significant for immunity and vaccine development [13, 14].
Bovine coronavirus (BCoV) respiratory illness has little control methods. The vaccinations for BoCV are approved for the prevention of newborn intestinal illness [9, 15, 16]. There are three inactivated vaccines approved for the treatment of neonatal enteric disease, and they are given to pregnant cows/heifers throughout pregnancy to increase humoral immunity in the newborn calf [9, 15]. A modified live virus vaccination containing BCoV is available for administration orally to newborn calves in order to stimulate an aggressive immune response and protect them from enteric disease [9, 15].
Three antigenic groups of coronaviruses have been identified, and all BCoV strains classified around the world belonged to the 2a subgroup [9]. The International Commission for Virus Taxonomy (ICTV) has recommended a revision of the Coronaviridae family to include the Alpha, Beta, and Gammacorona-virus genera in a new subfamily Coronavirinae. BCoV is classified as a member of the Betacoronavirus genus, which is part of the Corona-virinae subfamily, Coronaviridae family, and Nidovirales order. [18–20].
Recently, prevention and control of the infectious diseases have been among the top public health priorities. However, controlling disease due to pathogens that move between animals and humans has been challenging. Such zoonotic pathogens have been responsible for the majority of new human disease threats and a number of recent international epidemics [21].
Developing a medication or vaccine using traditional methods was a labor-intensive and time-consuming process that also carried the risk of toxicity and safety. By combining computational and experimental approaches, significant progress in building insilico tools not only accelerates drug discovery and vaccine design, but also decreases cost and time [22]. There are various possible advantages of peptide vaccinations over conventional organism vaccines. Most crucially, it permits the immune response to concentrate solely on relevant epitopes while avoiding those that trigger non-protective responses, immune evasion, or undesirable side effects such autoimmunity [23]. Furthermore, peptide vaccines are safe and cost-effective approach. Because of its ease of manufacture and simple composition, peptide vaccines are generally inexpensive to produce [24].
The main objective of this study was to develop a multi-epitope vaccine against Bovine coronavirus (BCoV) glycoprotein Spike (S) and hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) glycoproteins, using several immunoinformatics tools.