Designing a multi-epitope peptide based vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 1;10(1):16219. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73371-y.

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in 16,114,449 cases with 646,641 deaths from the 217 countries, or territories as on July 27th 2020. Due to multifaceted issues and challenges in the implementation of the safety and preventive measures, inconsistent coordination between societies-governments and most importantly lack of specific vaccine to SARS-CoV-2, the spread of the virus that initially emerged at Wuhan is still uprising after taking a heavy toll on human life. In the present study, we mapped immunogenic epitopes present on the four structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and we designed a multi-epitope peptide based vaccine that, demonstrated a high immunogenic response with a vast application on world's human population. On codon optimization and in-silico cloning, we found that candidate vaccine showed high expression in E. coli and immune simulation resulted in inducing a high level of both B-cell and T-cell mediated immunity. The results predicted that exposure of vaccine by administrating three injections significantly subsidized the antigen growth in the system. The proposed candidate vaccine found promising by yielding desired results and hence, should be validated by practical experimentations for its functioning and efficacy to neutralize SARS-CoV-2.

MeSH terms

  • Antigen-Antibody Complex / chemistry
  • Antigen-Antibody Complex / immunology
  • Antigens, Viral / immunology
  • B-Lymphocytes / immunology
  • COVID-19 Vaccines
  • Coronavirus Infections / immunology
  • Coronavirus Infections / prevention & control
  • Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins
  • Epitopes / chemistry
  • Epitopes / immunology*
  • HLA Antigens / chemistry
  • HLA Antigens / immunology
  • Humans
  • Immunogenicity, Vaccine
  • Molecular Docking Simulation*
  • Nucleocapsid Proteins / chemistry
  • Nucleocapsid Proteins / immunology
  • Phosphoproteins
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / chemistry
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / immunology
  • T-Lymphocytes / immunology
  • Toll-Like Receptors / immunology
  • Vaccines, Subunit / chemistry
  • Vaccines, Subunit / immunology*
  • Viral Matrix Proteins / chemistry
  • Viral Matrix Proteins / immunology
  • Viral Vaccines / chemistry
  • Viral Vaccines / immunology*

Substances

  • Antigen-Antibody Complex
  • Antigens, Viral
  • COVID-19 Vaccines
  • Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Proteins
  • Epitopes
  • HLA Antigens
  • Nucleocapsid Proteins
  • Phosphoproteins
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
  • Toll-Like Receptors
  • Vaccines, Subunit
  • Viral Matrix Proteins
  • Viral Vaccines
  • membrane protein, SARS-CoV-2
  • nucleocapsid phosphoprotein, SARS-CoV-2
  • spike glycoprotein, SARS-CoV