Insight into SNPs and epitopes of E protein of newly emerged genotype-I isolates of JEV from Midnapur, West Bengal, India.

Background Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in humans. Genotype-I (as co-circulating cases with Genotype-III) was isolated in 2010 (JEV28, JEV21) and then in 2011 (JEV45) from Midnapur district, West Bengal (WB) for the first time from clinical patients who were previously been vaccinated with live attenuated SA14-14-2 strain. We apply bioinformatics and immunoinformatics on sequence and structure of E protein for analysis of crucial substitutions that might cause the genotypic transition, affecting protein-function and altering specificity of epitopes.