Development of a novel platform of virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccine against COVID-19 by exposing epitopes: an immunoinformatics approach

Abstract

The emergence of a rapidly spreading and highly infectious COVID-19 outbreak by a novel coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused a global pandemic with unprecedented, social and economic dimensions. Therefore, the development of effective strategies is urgent to control COVID-19 outbreak. According to the recent investigations, cell entry of coronaviruses relies on binding of the viral spike glycoprotein to the host cellular receptors. Therefore, in the present study aimed to predict immunogenic epitopes in silico by analyzed spike protein. In parallel, by screening the immunogenic SARS-CoV-2 spike derived epitopes provided in the literature, we chose a set of epitopes believed to induce immunogenic response. Next, we provided the selected epitopes from both approaches, we performed immunoinformatic analysis that map identically to antigen regions and have antigenic properties. Finally, by suggesting a screened set of epitopes, we designed a novel virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine, optimized to be produced in plants by using molecular farming biotechnology techniques. We anticipate our assay to be a starting point for guiding experimental efforts toward the development of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

Anti-CoVid19 plasmid DNA vaccine induces a potent immune response in rodents by Pyro-drive Jet Injector intradermal inoculation

“…Development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 is the priority in many pharmaceutical companies and academic organizations all over the world. A variety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, such as protein subunit 12 , replicating or non-replicating viral vector 13-15 , inactivated virus 16 , live attenuated virus 17-18 , virus-like particle (VLP) 19-20 , RNA- 21-22 or DNA-based 6, 23-24 vaccines, are currently under development. DNA vaccines have several advantages compared to traditional vaccines, such as protein subunits, peptides, and living/inactivated pathogens.…”

Environmental impact assessment of COVID-19 therapeutic solutions. A prospective analysis

“…Candidate vaccines must induce the production of a high level of neutralizing antibodies and specific T cell-mediated immune response in almost all participants in the clinical trial ( Bakadia et al, 2021 ). Current vaccine candidates can be grouped into six different platforms: (i) protein subunit vaccines, (ii) viral-vectored vaccines, (iii) nucleic acid vaccines (mRNA and DNA vaccines), (iv) inactivated viruses, (v) live attenuated viruses, and (vi) virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines ( Won and Lee, 2020 ; Ghorbani et al, 2020 ). The environmental concern focuses on genetically modified live vaccines ( Tell et al, 2020 ).…”

Nano-Enabled COVID-19 Vaccines: Meeting the Challenges of Durable Antibody Plus Cellular Immunity and Immune Escape

“… 3 , 30 , 64 , 99 , 103 The ability to design new peptide-based vaccines has received a major boost from the availability of epitope-mapping tools such as the immune epitope database (IEDB) for predicting B- and T-cell epitope sequences ( Table 3 ). 106 , 107 In addition, a number of immunoinformatics approaches have emerged to facilitate the prediction-making process for multiepitope vaccine design, 30 , 64 , 65 , 94 , 100 , 102 , 104 , 108 including computational tools that predict epitope binding to diverse HLA alleles ( e.g ., the IEDB population coverage tool). 107 It is also possible to use HLA ligandome analysis for calculating the probability of peptide interactions with consensus motifs, including 3D predictions for viral peptide docking to cytokine-inducing receptors ( e.g ., TLR2 and TLR4).…”