Epitope‐based peptide vaccine design and target site depiction against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus: an immune-informatics study

Abstract

Background: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-COV) is the main cause of lung and kidney infections in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia and South Korea. This infectious single-stranded, positive (+) sense RNA virus enters the host by binding to dipeptidyl-peptide receptors. Since no vaccine is yet available for MERS-COV, rapid case identification, isolation, and infection prevention strategies must be used to combat the spreading of MERS-COV infection. Additionally, there is a desperate need for vaccines and antiviral strategies. Methods:The present study used immuno-informatics and computational approaches to identify conserved Band T cell epitopes for the MERS-COV spike (S) protein that may perform a significant role in eliciting the resistance response to MERS-COV infection. Results:Many conserved cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitopes and discontinuous and linear B-cell epitopes were predicted for the MERS-COV S protein, and their antigenicity and interactions with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) B7 allele were estimated. Among B-cell epitopes, QLQMGFGITVQYGT displayed the highest antigenicity-score, and was immensely immunogenic. Among T-cell epitopes, MHC class-I peptide YKLQPLTFL and MHC class-II peptide YCILEPRSG were identified as highly antigenic. Furthermore, docking analyses revealed that the predicted peptides engaged in strong bonding with the HLA-B7 allele. Conclusion:The present study identified several MERS-COV S protein epitopes that are conserved among various isolates from different countries. The putative antigenic epitopes may prove effective as novel vaccines for eradication and combating of MERS-COV infection.

Epitope-based chimeric peptide vaccine design against S, M and E proteins of SARS-CoV-2 etiologic agent of global pandemic COVID-19: anin silicoapproach

“…Furthermore, the homotrimeric S proteins of the SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV 9, 10 and MERS-CoV 5 comprises three chains: the chain A, B and C on the viral surface, guiding the link to host receptors. Unlike the full-length S protein of the CoVs, the RBD and NTD segments possessed the critical neutralizing domains but lacking the non-neutralizing immunodominant region 6, 10, 11, 22 . Therefore, considering the safety and effectiveness perspectives, the RBD and NTD are more promising candidates in the development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines over the full-length S protein.…”

“…This SARS-CoV-2 is the third coronovairus (CoV) that can infect human after the two previously reported coronavirus-severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) 2, 3 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) 4–6 . Alike SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, the recent SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus (+ssRNA) belonging to Genus Betacoronavirus within the family Coronaviridae 7 .…”

“…Alternatively, we propose the development of a multi-epitope vaccine candidate which could lead to the generation of a more potent protective immune response. Multi-epitope vaccine candidates have already been designed for several diseases, including FMD (in our laboratory; unpublished data), MERS and SARS, and their efficacies have been further reported in MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV 2, 6, 22 . Hence, we can assume that chimeric vaccine targeting multiple epitopes on the RBD and NTD segments of the S protein, M and E proteins would be a potentially effective vaccine candidate in combatting SARS-CoV-2, and therefore, could be used for vaccine design.…”

“…Several mAbs targeting non-RBD regions, especially the NTD has recently been reported 13, 15 . The NTD is located on the side of the spike trimer and has not been observed to undergo any dynamic conformational changes 11 , and therefore, might play role in viral attachment, inducing neutralizing antibody responses and stimulates a protective cellular immunity against SARS-CoV 2, 6, 11 . Besides, administration of RBD and NTD proteins also induced highly potent neutralizing antibodies and long-term protective immunity in animal models 9 .…”

Scrutinizing the SARS-CoV-2 protein information for the designing an effective vaccine encompassing both the T-cell and B-cell epitopes

“…Here we have designed a multiepitope-based vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 using next generation vaccinology approach where the recently available genome and proteome of the SARS-CoV-2 were maneuvered and a potential vaccine candidate was conceived. Similar strategy was employed previously for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV [20][21][22][23][24][25] as well as certain findings are reported for the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 [26][27][28]. While immunoinformatics techniques was utilized by groups to predict the B-cell and cytotoxic T-cell epitopes in the SARS-CoV-2 surface glycoprotein, N protein [27][28][29], others have utilized the information to design epitope-based vaccine based on the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein [26].…”