Designing Multi-Epitope Vaccines to Combat Emerging Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) by Employing Immuno-Informatics Approach

Abstract

A recent pandemic caused by a single-stranded RNA virus, COVID-19, initially discovered in China, is now spreading globally. This poses a serious threat that needs to be addressed immediately. Genome analysis of SARS-CoV-2 has revealed its close relation to SARS-coronavirus along with few changes in its spike protein. The spike protein aids in receptor binding and viral entry within the host and therefore represents a potential target for vaccine and therapeutic development. In the current study, the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 was explored for potential immunogenic epitopes to design multi-epitope vaccine constructs. The S1 and S2 domains of spike proteins were analyzed, and two vaccine constructs were prioritized with T-cell and B-cell epitopes. We adapted a comprehensive predictive framework to provide novel insights into immunogenic epitopes of spike proteins, which can further be evaluated as potential vaccine candidates against COVID-19. Prioritized epitopes were then modeled using linkers and adjuvants, and respective 3D models were constructed to evaluate their physiochemical properties and their possible interactions with ACE2, HLA Superfamily alleles, TLR2, and TLR4.

In silico designing of multi-epitope vaccine construct against human coronavirus infections

“…Also, 50S ribosomal protein L7/L12 (NCBI Accession no. P9WHE and UniProt ID P0A7K2) was used as an adjuvant and was attached to the N- terminal through EAAAK linker (Kar et al., 2020 ; Naz et al., 2020 ; Samad et al., 2020 ). The adjuvant is believed to improve the antigenicity of the vaccine.…”

Induction of the Antiviral Immune Response and Its Circumvention by Coronaviruses

“…TLRs 2 and 4 are expressed on the surface of cells and are capable of detecting glycoproteins of viral PAMPs ( Figure 2 ). They have been identified as potential receptors for S protein that induce the host’s innate immune response [ 47 ].…”

Genome-wide analysis of Indian SARS-CoV-2 genomes to identify T-cell and B-cell epitopes from conserved regions based on immunogenicity and antigenicity

“…Similar study has been conducted by Rakib et al [16] in which spike protein region has been analysed through multiple sequence analysis in different SARS-CoV-2 genomes to predict the most immunogenic peptide fragments. In this study, a multi-epitope based vaccine has been proposed through analysing the S1 and S2 domains of spike proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes in order to provide the best epitopes [17] for designing a vaccine. However, it is important to note that other protein sites can also be targeted for vaccine design as well [18] .…”