PONE-D-24-54052Exploring Varicella Zoster Virus Proteome for Construction and Validation of  A multi-Epitope Based Subunit Vaccine Using Multifaceted Immunoinformatics ApproachesPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Almofti,

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Dear Authors

I sincerely appreciate the time and effort you have invested in addressing the comments. Your thorough responses and dedication to improving the quality of the work are commendable. Completing these revisions is a crucial step toward finalizing the manuscript, and your attention to detail has been invaluable.

Thank you once again for your commitment and hard work.

Best regards

Reviewer #2: The Manuscript covers an important topic in the world of bio-informatics and vaccine design using plenty of computational algorithms and in-silico analysis spreading over more than 40 pages making it text heavy.

The authors are advised to make their writing concise without compromising on the information contained in the manuscript as most of the information in Materials and Results when working with computational tools is repeated.

Because the paper is an experimental paper, the methodology section should contain a process flow diagram of the whole design process, which would make it intuitive for the reviewer to get a quick grasp of the whole work.

The manuscript has language and grammatical issues. It should be properly proof read and necessary changes should be incorporated to improve its readability before accepting it for publication.

The figures available in the manuscript do not seem to be publication level . Authors are advised to improve the quality of Figures.

A scientific study for validating the epitope characteristics of short listed VZV proteins should have been included so that the computational prediction has some relevance. Plain predictions, without any experimental support is prone to inaccuracies and is usually not counted as a result. Therefore, authors are advised to explore the validation literature for the epitope candidates which would greatly improve the authenticity of their results.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Exploring Varicella Zoster Virus Proteome for Construction and Validation of  A multi-Epitope Based Subunit Vaccine Using Multifaceted Immunoinformatics Approaches

PONE-D-24-54052R1

Dear Dr. Almofti,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Syed Nisar Hussain Bukhari

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: