Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused massive health and economic disasters worldwide. Although several vaccines have effectively slowed the spread of the virus, their long-term protection and effectiveness against viral variants are still uncertain. To address these potential shortcomings, this study proposes a peptide-based vaccine to prevent COVID-19. A total of 15 B cell epitopes of the wild-type severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) protein were selected, and their HLA affinities predicted in silico. Peptides were divided into two groups and tested in C57BL/6 mice with either QS21 or Al(OH) 3 as the adjuvant. Our results demonstrated that the peptide-based vaccine stimulated high and durable antibody responses in mice, with the T and B cell responses differing based on the type of adjuvant employed. Using epitope mapping, we showed that our peptide-based vaccine produced antibody patterns similar to those in COVID-19 convalescent individuals. Moreover, plasma from vaccinated mice and recovered COVID-19 humans had the same neutralizing activity when tested with a pseudo particle assay. Our data indicate that this adjuvant peptide-based vaccine can generate sustainable and effective B and T cell responses. Thus, we believe that our peptide-based vaccine can be a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19, particularly because of the flexibility of including new peptides to prevent emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and avoiding unwanted autoimmune responses.
Keywords: COVID-19; T and B cells; adjuvant; neutralizing activity; peptide; spike protein; vaccine.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Vaccine, peptide, Spike protein, Neutralizing activity, adjuvant, T and B cells, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, Coronavirus disease 2019, Vaccine, antibody, Antibody Response, Human, SARS-CoV-2 variant, peptide, in silico, virus, Spike protein, Spread, Protein, Epitopes, Neutralizing activity, T cell, Health, mice, T cell responses, Effectiveness, peptides, Viral variants, plasma, Neutralizing, adjuvant, HLA, epitope mapping, epitope, viral variant, affinity, flexibility, B cell epitopes, T and B cells, B cell epitope, Safe, B cell response, two groups, wild-type, peptide-based vaccine, convalescent individuals, C57BL/6, T and B cell responses, Prevent, effective, Respiratory Coronavirus, autoimmune responses, stimulated, selected, produced, tested, predicted, caused, generate, demonstrated, two group, 【제목키워드】 Model, Developing,