Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has shown rapid global spread and has resulted in a significant death toll worldwide. In this study, we aimed to design a multi-epitope vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 based on structural proteins S, M, N, and E. We identified B- and T-cell epitopes and then the antigenicity, toxicity, allergenicity, and similarity of predicted epitopes were analyzed. T-cell epitopes were docked with corresponding HLA alleles. Consequently, the selected T- and B-cell epitopes were included in the final construct. All selected epitopes were connected with different linkers and flagellin and pan-HLA DR binding epitopes (PADRE) as an adjuvant were used in the vaccine construct. Furthermore, molecular docking was used to evaluate the complex between the final vaccine construct and two alleles, HLA-A*02:01 and HLA-DRB1*01:01. Finally, codons were optimized for in silico cloning into pET28a(+) vector using SnapGene. The final vaccine construct comprised 11 CTL, HTL, and B-cell epitopes corresponding to 394 amino acid residues. In silico evaluation showed that the designed vaccine might potentially promote an immune response. Further in vivo preclinical and clinical testing is required to determine the safety and efficacy of the designed vaccine.
Keywords: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); multi-epitope vaccine; structural proteins.
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