Virusdisease . Exploration of antigenic determinants in spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV2 and identification of five salient potential epitopes

[tetano]

Virusdisease


. 2021 Sep 7;1-10.
doi: 10.1007/s13337-021-00737-9. Online ahead of print.
Exploration of antigenic determinants in spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV2 and identification of five salient potential epitopes


Aditya Agrawal ¹ , Rajat Varshney ² , Mamta Pathak ¹ , Shailesh Kumar Patel ¹ , Vishal Rai ¹ , Sourabh Sulabh ³ , Rohini Gupta ⁴ , Khushal Singh Solanki ¹ , Ritu Varshney ⁵ , Ramadevi Nimmanapalli ²



Affiliations

• PMID: 34514073
• PMCID: PMC8422955
• DOI: 10.1007/s13337-021-00737-9

Abstract

Emerging pathogens have been an eternal threat to mankind. In a series of pandemics caused by notorious coronaviruses, a newly emerged SARS-CoV2 virus is creating panic among the world population. The unavailability of reliable theranostics insists the exploration of antigenic determinants in spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV2. The four novel inserts ('⁷⁰VSGTNGT⁷⁶', '¹⁵⁰KSWM¹⁵³', ²⁴⁷SYLTPG²⁵² and ⁶⁷⁴QTQTNSPRR⁶⁸²) in SARS-CoV2 spike protein were unraveled via multiple sequence alignment of spike proteins of SARS-CoV2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV. The three-dimension (3D) modeling of the spike protein of the SARS-CoV2 and their interaction with the ACE2 receptor was delineated with the help of SWISS-MODEL and 3DLigandSite web servers. The predicted 3D model of SARS-CoV2 was further verified by SAVES, RAMPAGE, and ProSA-web tools. The potential B-cell immunogenic epitopes of SARS-CoV2 were predicted out by using various software viz. IEDB B-cell epitopes prediction tool, BepiPred linear epitope prediction tool, Emini Surface Accessibility Prediction tool, and Kolaskar-Tongaonkar antigenicity web tool. The five epitopes (i.e. '⁷¹SGTNGTKRFDN⁸¹, ²⁴⁷SYLTPG²⁵², ⁶³⁴RVYST⁶³⁸, ⁶⁷⁵QTQTNSPRRARSV⁶⁸⁷, and ¹⁰⁵⁴QSAPH¹⁰⁵⁸) were selected as potent antigenic determinants. The quantum of information generated by this study will prove beneficial for the development of effective therapeutics, diagnostics, and multi-epitopic vaccines to combat this ongoing menace.

Keywords: ACE2 receptor; Epitopes; SARS-CoV2; Spike protein; Vaccines.