<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic requires urgently specific therapeutics and approved vaccines. Here, the four structural proteins of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, are screened by in-house immunoinformatic tools to identify peptides acting as potential T-cell epitopes. In order to act as an epitope, the peptide should be processed in the host cell and presented on the cell surface in a complex with the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA). The aim of the study is to predict the binding affinities of all peptides originating from the structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 to 30 most frequent in the human population HLA proteins of class I and class II and to select the high binders (IC<sub>50</sub> &lt; 50 nM). The predicted high binders are compared to known high binders from SARS-CoV conserved in CoV-2 and 77% of them coincided. The high binders will be uploaded onto lipid nanoparticles and the multi-epitope vaccine prototype will be tested for ability to provoke T-cell mediated immunity and protection against SARS-CoV-2.</p></abstract>

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic requires urgently specific therapeutics and approved vaccines. Here, the four structural proteins of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, are screened by in-house immunoinformatic tools to identify peptides acting as potential T-cell epitopes. In order to act as an epitope, the peptide should be processed in the host cell and presented on the cell surface in a complex with the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA). The aim of the study is to predict the binding affinities of all peptides originating from the structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 to 30 most frequent in the human population HLA proteins of class I and class II and to select the high binders (IC50 < 50 nM). The predicted high binders are compared to known high binders from SARS-CoV conserved in CoV-2 and 77% of them coincided. The high binders will be uploaded onto lipid nanoparticles and the multi-epitope vaccine prototype will be tested for ability to provoke T-cell mediated immunity and protection against SARS-CoV-2.

Design of Multi-Epitope Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

Cybernetics and Information Technologies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Design of Multi-Epitope Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2"}

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic requires urgently specific therapeutics and approved vaccines. Here, the four structural proteins of the Severe Acute Respiratory...

Design of Multi-Epitope Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

Published Online: Dec 31, 2020

Page range: 185 - 193

Received: Sep 15, 2020

Accepted: Nov 04, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/cait-2020-0072

Keywords
COVID-19, multi-epitope vaccine, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, EpiJen, EpiTOP, EpiDOCK, high binders, HLA class I, HLA class II

© 2020 Irini Doytchinova et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Design of Multi-Epitope Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

Published Online: Dec 31, 2020

Page range: 185 - 193

Received: Sep 15, 2020

Accepted: Nov 04, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/cait-2020-0072

KeywordsCOVID-19, multi-epitope vaccine, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, EpiJen, EpiTOP, EpiDOCK, high binders, HLA class I, HLA class II

© 2020 Irini Doytchinova et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
COVID-19, multi-epitope vaccine, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, EpiJen, EpiTOP, EpiDOCK, high binders, HLA class I, HLA class II