Deciphering the Potential Coding of Human Cytomegalovirus: New Predicted Transmembrane Proteome

CMV is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised individuals that will benefit from the availability of a vaccine. Despite the efforts made during the last decade, no CMV vaccine is available. An ideal CMV vaccine should elicit a broad immune response against multiple viral antigens including proteins involved in virus-cell interaction and entry. However, the therapeutic use of neutralizing antibodies targeting glycoproteins involved in viral entry achieved only partial protection against infection. In this scenario, a better understanding of the CMV proteome potentially involved in viral entry may provide novel candidates to include in new potential vaccine design. In this study, we aimed to explore the CMV genome to identify proteins with putative transmembrane domains to identify new potential viral envelope proteins. We have performed in silico analysis using the genome sequences of nine different CMV strains to predict the transmembrane domains of the encoded proteins. We have identified 77 proteins with transmembrane domains, 39 of which were present in all the strains and were highly conserved. Among the core proteins, 17 of them such as UL10, UL139 or US33A have no ascribed function and may be good candidates for further mechanistic studies.

Automated summary

CMV is a major cause of illness and death in immunocompromised individuals, but there is currently no available vaccine. In this study, we explored the CMV genome to identify potential viral envelope proteins with transmembrane domains, which could contribute to the development of a new vaccine.