Fuente: PubMed "industrial biotechnology" Sci Rep. 2026 Jun 20. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-59194-3. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe pathogenesis of Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is characterized by ubiquitous and most likely silent childhood infection that may cause Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). This mRNA vaccine includes the capsid proteins VP1 and VP2, as well as the Large T antigen and small T antigen, which are highly immunogenic. This has led to the development of mRNA vaccines against these T and Capsid peptides. Different computational methods was used to identify the epitopes of helper CD4 + lymphocytes and CD8 + lymphocytes. All of selected epitopes was analyzed for their toxicity, allergenicity, and immunogenicity. The MD simulation was carried out in an orthorhombic TIP3P water box with a buffer region of 10 Å, and Na+/Cl- counter ions at a physiological amount of salt (150 mM) were added to neutralize the system. Once the NVT and NPT aggregates were equilibrated, a 100 ns manufacturing run at 310 K and 1 atm was performed. Our vaccine has 19 epitopes in the vaccine construct, including HTLs and CTLs. The vaccine was found to have an increased hydrophilicity, and the average hydropathicity score was - 8.95. The Ramachandran plot revealed potential stability, 94.6% of the amino acid units were found in the allowed region. The vaccine showed potentially high affinity with the TLR3 receptor as the docking score was - 318.56 KJ/mol, and the confidence score was 0.9668. After codon optimization, there was a knowing improvement in the expression in E. coli vectors that produced vaccines, as indicated by the increase in GC content to 53.41. MM-GBSA analysis showed that there was a uniform binding affinity of TLR3 between - 1500 and - 2000 kcal/mol. Our vaccine construct against MCPyV showed potential immune responses and should be advanced to in vitro and in vivo clinical experiments.PMID:42323496 | DOI:10.1038/s41598-026-59194-3