Bioinformatic prediction of immunodominant regions in spike protein for early diagnosis of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

PeerJ

article

Siqi Zhuang¹  Lingli Tang¹  Yufeng Dai¹  Xiaojing Feng¹  Yiyuan Fang¹  Haoneng Tang¹  Ping Jiang¹  Xiang Wu²  Hezhi Fang³  Hongzhi Chen⁴ 

[1] Department of Laboratory Medicine, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University;Department of Parasitology, Xiangya School of Basic Medicine, Central South University;Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine, Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, College of Laboratory Medicine and Life Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University;National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Disease, Key Laboratory of Diabetes Immunology, Ministry of Education, Metabolic Syndrome Research Center, and Department of Metabolism & Endocrinology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University

关键词: SARS-CoV-2;    Spike protein;    Antigen-capture;    Immunodominant fragments;    COVID-19;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.11232

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Background To contain the pandemics caused by SARS-CoV-2, early detection approaches with high accuracy and accessibility are critical. Generating an antigen-capture based detection system would be an ideal strategy complementing the current methods based on nucleic acids and antibody detection. The spike protein is found on the outside of virus particles and appropriate for antigen detection. Methods In this study, we utilized bioinformatics approaches to explore the immunodominant fragments on spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Results The S1 subunit of spike protein was identified with higher sequence specificity. Three immunodominant fragments, Spike56-94, Spike199-264, and Spike577-612, located at the S1 subunit were finally selected via bioinformatics analysis. The glycosylation sites and high-frequency mutation sites on spike protein were circumvented in the antigen design. All the identified fragments present qualified antigenicity, hydrophilicity, and surface accessibility. A recombinant antigen with a length of 194 amino acids (aa) consisting of the selected immunodominant fragments as well as a universal Th epitope was finally constructed. Conclusion The recombinant peptide encoded by the construct contains multiple immunodominant epitopes, which is expected to stimulate a strong immune response in mice and generate qualified antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 detection.

【 授权许可】

CC BY