Immunoinformatics and molecular modeling approach to design universal multi-epitope vaccine for SARS-CoV-2

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imu.2021.100578Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Potential T and B cell epitopes were screened from structural, non-structural and accessory proteins through immunoinformatics approach.

  • An immunogenic multi-subunit vaccine was hypothesized by combining the best immunodominant peptides with TLR agonist and universal PADRE sequence.

  • Molecular Dynamics revealed the stability of vaccine with the Toll-like-Receptors.

  • Epitopes from structural proteins were highly conserved with SARS CoV-1 epitopes.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a highly transmittable and pathogenic human coronavirus that caused a pandemic situation of acute respiratory syndrome, called COVID-19, which has posed a significant threat to global health security. The aim of the present study is to computationally design an effective peptide-based multi-epitope vaccine (MEV) against SARS-CoV-2. The overall model quality of the vaccine candidate, immunogenicity, allergenicity, and physiochemical analysis have been conducted and validated. Molecular dynamics studies confirmed the stability of the candidate vaccine. The docked complexes during the simulation revealed a strong and stable binding interactions of MEV with human and mice toll-like receptors (TLR), TLR3 and TLR4. Finally, candidate vaccine codons have been optimized for their in silico cloning in E. coli expression system, to confirm increased expression. The proposed MEV can be a potential candidate against SARS-CoV-2, but experimental validation is needed to ensure its safety and immunogenicity status.

Keywords

Immunoinformatics
Multi-epitope vaccine
SARS-CoV-1
SARS-CoV-2
Molecular dynamics simulation

Cited by (0)