The use of CCHF virus nucleocapsid protein in the specific and accurate diagnosis of this biological threat and its role in designing a new protective vaccine against the aforementioned disease

Statement of Problem: The highly lethal Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) virus is a significant biological threat for public health with a high mortality rate. Therefore, the lack of a protective vaccine or an efficient proprietary drug against this biologically threatening agent makes research and development necessary in all three fields of diagnosis, prevention and treatment.Research Purpose: The purpose of this study is to review the potential of nucleocapsid protein (NP) of CCHFV, especially, the conserved hyper-antigenic regions of it in designing novel protective vaccines against CCHF together with glycoprotein (GP) as the main part of traditional vaccines, as well as the formation of virus-like particles (VLPs) by the self-assembly of N protein subunits for the development of future nano-vaccines and also the role of mentioned regions of NP in specific and accurate diagnosis of CCHFV based on serological assays.Research Method: In the present study, we comprehensively reviewed and discussed the relevant literature and the latest findings regarding the protective role of NP in the design of new vaccine candidates proposed in the world against CCHF, functional mechanisms of NP, the software analysis of hyper-antigenic regions of it as well as the other role of NP in serological diagnosis of CCHFV.Results and Conclusion: The findings of this review indicate that the N protein of CCHFV virus is considered as a main component of the candidate vaccine protecting against CCHF disease in order to develop traditional vaccines based on viral glycoproteins (GPN and GPC). Reviewed studies show that vaccines based on NP and GP proteins can induce strong immune responses that include the activation of the humoral immune system by producing neutralizing antibodies and cellular immunity system by inducing long-term responses of CD۴+ and CD۸+ T cells. Also, the formation of virus-like particles (VLPs) with self-assembly of NP subunits has been considered for the development of future nano-vaccines. The presence of important NP epitopes in highly conserved regions (hyper antigenic regions of NP), including the main domain of this protein (amino acid residues between ۲۰۱ and ۳۰۶), in addition to playing a role in the design of a protective vaccine, can also be used in specific and accurate diagnosis of this biological threatening agent using antigen-antibody based assays and solve the problems related to PCR-based molecular detection methods.

Keywords:

Crimean Congo , biological threat , nucleoprotein , vaccine