{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T06:09:56Z","timestamp":1792130996970,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":98,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,6]],"date-time":"2020-07-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1593993600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Sub-Saharan African Network for TB\/HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE), a DELTAS Africa Initiative grant number DEL-15-006. The DELTAS Africa Initiative is an independent funding scheme of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)\u2019s Alliance for Accelerating Exc","award":["087537\/F\/08\/Z"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["087537\/F\/08\/Z"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the primary cause of liver-related malignancies worldwide, and there is no effective cure for chronic HBV infection (CHB) currently. Strong immunological responses induced by T cells are associated with HBV clearance during acute infection; however, the repertoire of epitopes (epi) presented by major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) to elicit these responses in various African populations is not well understood. In silico approaches were used to map and investigate 15-mers HBV peptides restricted to 9 HLA class II alleles with high population coverage in Botswana. Sequences from 44 HBV genotype A and 48 genotype D surface genes (PreS\/S) from Botswana were used. Of the 1819 epi bindings predicted, 20.2% were strong binders (SB), and none of the putative epi bind to all the 9 alleles suggesting that multi-epitope, genotype-based, population-based vaccines will be more effective against HBV infections as opposed to previously proposed broad potency epitope-vaccines which were assumed to work for all alleles. In total, there were 297 unique epi predicted from the 3 proteins and amongst, S regions had the highest number of epi (n = 186). Epitope-densities (Depi) between genotypes A and D were similar. A number of mutations that hindered HLA-peptide binding were observed. We also identified antigenic and genotype-specific peptides with characteristics that are well suited for the development of sensitive diagnostic kits. This study identified candidate peptides that can be used for developing multi-epitope vaccines and highly sensitive diagnostic kits against HBV infection in an African population. Our results suggest that viral variability may hinder HBV peptide-MHC binding, required to initiate a cascade of immunological responses against infection.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v12070731","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,6]],"date-time":"2020-07-06T11:07:42Z","timestamp":1594033662000},"page":"731","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["In Silico Prediction of Human Leukocytes Antigen (HLA) Class II Binding Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Peptides in Botswana"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7606-0569","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wonderful Tatenda","family":"Choga","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"},{"name":"Division of Human Genetics, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9974-9684","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Motswedi","family":"Anderson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Edward","family":"Zumbika","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Applied Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo 0000, Zimbabwe"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bonolo B.","family":"Phinius","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tshepiso","family":"Mbangiwa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"},{"name":"Division of Human Genetics, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lynnette N.","family":"Bhebhe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kabo","family":"Baruti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"},{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Botswana, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter Opiyo","family":"Kimathi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research, Cape Town 7925, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2190-2842","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kaelo K.","family":"Seatla","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"},{"name":"Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Botswana, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rosemary M.","family":"Musonda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"},{"name":"Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2630-7513","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Trevor Graham","family":"Bell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Independent Researcher, P.O. Box 497, Wits, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3821-4592","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sikhulile","family":"Moyo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"},{"name":"Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2876-3811","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jason T.","family":"Blackard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Digestive Diseases, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Simani","family":"Gaseitsiwe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Laboratory, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone 0000, Botswana"},{"name":"Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. 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