Fast Preparation of Peptide Tools to address new emerging Viruses: Case example SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Abstract The emergence of new virus species or variants poses a major challenge for healthcare systems. Countermeasures, including vaccine development, need to be developed without delay to ensure success. Vaccine and antibody development depend on highly efficient tools for antigen discovery, epitope mapping, diagnostics and (clinical) immune monitoring. Here we present a workflow for peptide tool development that can be rapidly adapted to emerging viruses. It combines bioinformatics algorithms and an ultra-high throughput peptide synthesis method alongside high-content assay formats. Data from different SARS-CoV-2 studies are presented addressing elucidation of both cellular and humoral immune responses. Robust spike-specific cellular immune responses were measured using SARS-CoV-2 Spike PepMix ™peptide pools during infection and/or vaccine response monitoring [ 1]. Using epitope mapping (matrix) pools an immunodominant T-cell epitope was identified that may contribute to the optimization of existing vaccines [ 2]. In addition, the immune response of Covid-19 convalescents against all major SARS-CoV-2 proteins was analyzed [ 2]. Humoral immune response analysis by high-density peptide microarrays identified immunodominant B cell epitopes as starting points for the development of alternative vaccines and diagnostic tests [ 3]. In conclusion, we show that readily available and tailored peptide formats, as exemplified for SARS-CoV-2, are important tools that contribute to the fast development and optimization of vaccines and diagnostic tests for emerging viruses of concern.