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Review
. 2023 Dec 8:11:e16419.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.16419. eCollection 2023.

Riding the wave of innovation: immunoinformatics in fish disease control

Siti Aisyah Razali  1   2 , Mohd Shahir Shamsir  3 , Nur Farahin Ishak  1 , Chen-Fei Low  4 , Wan-Atirah Azemin  5
Affiliations
Review

Riding the wave of innovation: immunoinformatics in fish disease control

Siti Aisyah Razali et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

The spread of infectious illnesses has been a significant factor restricting aquaculture production. To maximise aquatic animal health, vaccination tactics are very successful and cost-efficient for protecting fish and aquaculture animals against many disease pathogens. However, due to the increasing number of immunological cases and their complexity, it is impossible to manage, analyse, visualise, and interpret such data without the assistance of advanced computational techniques. Hence, the use of immunoinformatics tools is crucial, as they not only facilitate the management of massive amounts of data but also greatly contribute to the creation of fresh hypotheses regarding immune responses. In recent years, advances in biotechnology and immunoinformatics have opened up new research avenues for generating novel vaccines and enhancing existing vaccinations against outbreaks of infectious illnesses, thereby reducing aquaculture losses. This review focuses on understanding in silico epitope-based vaccine design, the creation of multi-epitope vaccines, the molecular interaction of immunogenic vaccines, and the application of immunoinformatics in fish disease based on the frequency of their application and reliable results. It is believed that it can bridge the gap between experimental and computational approaches and reduce the need for experimental research, so that only wet laboratory testing integrated with in silico techniques may yield highly promising results and be useful for the development of vaccines for fish.

Keywords: Adjuvant; Aquaculture; Computational biotechnology; Fish diseases; Immunoinformatics; In silico epitope-based vaccine design; Linker selection; Molecular docking; Molecular dynamics simulation; Vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. An antibody with two paratopes.
These two paratopes are capable of binding to two pathogens. Non-covalent chemical interactions between epitopes and paratopes boost antigen–antibody binding. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Immunological basis of the fish vaccine.
(A) Humoral immune response. (B) Cell-mediated immune response. Created with BioRender.com.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Schematic illustration of the basic process of comparative modelling for protein structure prediction.
This method consists of several steps including template identification, initial alignment, alignment correction, backbone generation, loop and side-chain modelling, structure refinement and model evaluation.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Decision-making chart for protein structure prediction method.
The prediction of the 3D structure of a protein can be carried out with one of these three approaches: homology modelling, threading, or ab initio prediction.
Figure 5
Figure 5. A diagrammatic description of the procedures involved in the in silico design of a multi-epitope vaccine for fish illnesses.
Beginning with proteome retrieval and continuing through multi-epitope vaccine design and its validation by molecular docking and MD simulation.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Schematic illustration of immune mechanisms activation in different fish species (boxed by dotted lines) through Toll-like receptor (TLR) signalling pathways.
Modified from Rauta et al. (2014), Rebl, Goldammer & Seyfert (2010), and Zhang et al. (2014). Created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) Malaysia through Fundamental Research Grants Scheme (FRGS/1/2021/STG01/UMT/02/2) and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu through the Talent and Publication Enhancement Research Grant (UMT/TAPE-RG/2020/55298). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.