Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 (Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) is a newly emerged beta coronavirus and etiolating agent of COVID-19. Considering the unprecedented increasing number of COVID-19 cases, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency internationally on 11th March 2020. However, existing drugs are insufficient in dealing with this contagious virus infection; therefore, a vaccine is exigent to curb this pandemic disease. In the present study, B- and T-cell immune epitopes were identified for RdRp (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase) protein using immunoinformatic techniques, which is proved to be a rapid and efficient method to explore the candidate peptide vaccine. Subsequently, antigenicity and interactions with HLA (human leukocyte antigen) alleles were estimated. Further, physicochemical properties, allergenicity, toxicity, and stability of RdRp protein were evaluated to demonstrate the specificity of the epitope candidates. Interestingly, we identified a total of 36 B-cell and 16 T-cell epitopes using epitopes predictive tools. Among the predicted epitopes, 26 B-cell and 9 T-cell epitopes showed non-allergenic, non-toxic, and highly antigenic properties. Altogether, our study revealed that RdRp of SARS-CoV-2 (an epitope-based peptide fragment) can be a potentially good candidate for the development of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.
Highlights
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARSCoV-2) is the causal agent of the current pandemic of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), inducing moderate to severe respiratory illness in humans across the globe [1].e disease has originated from the wet seafood market in Wuhan city of Hubei province (China), in late December 2019 [2]
RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) protein sequence (932 amino acid long) of SARS-CoV-2 Indian isolate was retrieved from the NCBI virus database. is protein sequence was used in this study for predicting epitopes
Estimation of Physicochemical Properties and Hydropathy Index of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp Protein. e physicochemical properties of RdRp protein were estimated using Protparam (ExPASy) which revealed that the RdRp protein is 932 amino acids in length with a molecular weight of 106660.24 Da, the total number of atoms is 14771, aliphatic index 78.43, instability index 28.32, and GRAVY score of −0.224
Summary
Received 10 December 2020; Revised 22 March 2021; Accepted 2 April 2021; Published 22 April 2021. SARS-CoV-2 (Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) is a newly emerged beta coronavirus and etiolating agent of COVID-19. Considering the unprecedented increasing number of COVID-19 cases, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency internationally on 11th March 2020. B- and T-cell immune epitopes were identified for RdRp (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase) protein using immunoinformatic techniques, which is proved to be a rapid and efficient method to explore the candidate peptide vaccine. Physicochemical properties, allergenicity, toxicity, and stability of RdRp protein were evaluated to demonstrate the specificity of the epitope candidates. 26 B-cell and 9 T-cell epitopes showed non-allergenic, non-toxic, and highly antigenic properties. Our study revealed that RdRp of SARS-CoV-2 (an epitope-based peptide fragment) can be a potentially good candidate for the development of a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2
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