Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Epitope Mapping for Antibodies

Immunohorizons. 2022 Jun 13;6(6):344-355. doi: 10.4049/immunohorizons.2200030.

Abstract

Epitope mapping of the interactions between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Abs is challenging because of complexity in protein three-dimensional structures. Protein structure fingerprint technology was applied for epitope mapping of 44 SARS-CoV-2 Abs with three-dimensional structure complexes. The results defined how the epitopes were distributed on SARS-CoV-2 and how the patterns of six CDRs from Abs participated in neutralization. Also, the residue-residue recognition revealed that certain residues had higher frequencies on the interfaces between SARS-CoV-2 and Abs, and the activity correlated with the physicochemical properties of the residues at the interface. Thus, epitope mapping provides significant lead information for development of epitope-based designs for Abs, vaccines, and diagnostic reagents. This is a bioinformatics project of structural data analysis; no animals or cells were used.

MeSH terms

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • COVID-19*
  • Epitope Mapping
  • Epitopes
  • Humans
  • Membrane Glycoproteins
  • SARS-CoV-2*
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
  • Viral Envelope Proteins

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Epitopes
  • Membrane Glycoproteins
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
  • Viral Envelope Proteins
  • spike protein, SARS-CoV-2