Naully PG, Tan MI, El Khobar KE, Sukowati CHC, Giri-Rachman EA. Advancing therapeutic vaccines for chronic hepatitis B: Integrating reverse vaccinology and immunoinformatics. World J Hepatol 2025; 17(7): 107620 [DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i7.107620]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ernawati Arifin Giri-Rachman, Associate Professor, Senior Scientist, School of Life Science and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesa 10, Bandung 10432, Jawa Barat, Indonesia. erna_girirachman@itb.ac.id
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. Jul 27, 2025; 17(7): 107620 Published online Jul 27, 2025. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i7.107620
Advancing therapeutic vaccines for chronic hepatitis B: Integrating reverse vaccinology and immunoinformatics
Patricia Gita Naully, Marselina Irasonia Tan, Korri Elvanita El Khobar, Caecilia H C Sukowati, Ernawati Arifin Giri-Rachman
Patricia Gita Naully, Marselina Irasonia Tan, Ernawati Arifin Giri-Rachman, School of Life Science and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung 10432, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
Patricia Gita Naully, Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, Jenderal Achmad Yani University, Cimahi 40525, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
Korri Elvanita El Khobar, Caecilia H C Sukowati, Eijkman Research Center for Molecular Biology, Research Organization for Health, National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia, Jakarta 10430, Indonesia
Caecilia H C Sukowati, Liver Cancer Unit, Fondazione Italiana Fegato ONLUS, Trieste 34149, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
Co-corresponding authors: Caecilia H C Sukowati and Ernawati Arifin Giri-Rachman.
Author contributions: Sukowati CHC and Giri-Rachman EA contribute equally to this study as co-corresponding authors; Naully PG drafted the original manuscript and designed the figures; El Khobar KE and Sukowati CHC wrote part of the manuscript; Tan MI and Giri-Rachman EA proposed and concepted the manuscript topic; Tan MI, Sukowati CHC, and Giri-Rachman EA gave critical suggestions to the final draft; all authors have agreed with the final revisions of the manuscript.
Supported by Riset Unggulan of Institut Teknologi Bandung, No. 125/IT1.B07.1/SPP-DRI/III/2025.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ernawati Arifin Giri-Rachman, Associate Professor, Senior Scientist, School of Life Science and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Jl. Ganesa 10, Bandung 10432, Jawa Barat, Indonesia. erna_girirachman@itb.ac.id
Received: March 27, 2025 Revised: April 28, 2025 Accepted: June 13, 2025 Published online: July 27, 2025 Processing time: 120 Days and 18.9 Hours
Abstract
Current treatments for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) are lifelong, often accompanied by side effects and the risk of drug resistance, highlighting the urgent need for alternative therapies such as therapeutic vaccines. However, challenges such as selecting appropriate antigens and addressing multiple hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes hinder the development of these vaccines. One approach to overcoming these challenges is reverse vaccinology (RV) combined with immunoinformatics. RV uses computational methods to identify antigens from pathogen genetic information, including genomic and proteomic data. These methods have helped researchers identify conserved epitopes across bacterial strains or viral species, including multiple HBV genotypes. Computational tools, such as epitope mapping algorithms, molecular docking analysis, molecular dynamics simulations, and immune response simulations, enable key epitope identification, predict vaccine candidates' binding potential to immune cell receptors, and forecast the immune response. Together, these approaches streamline therapeutic vaccine design for CHB, making it faster, more cost-effective, and accurate. This review aims to explore the potential role of RV and immunoinformatics in advancing therapeutic vaccine design for CHB.
Core Tip: Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) remains a significant public health concern worldwide where effective alternative therapies are still urgently needed. This review aims to explore the potential role of reverse vaccinology combined with immunoinformatics in advancing therapeutic vaccine design for CHB.
