Currently, there is limited knowledge about the immunological profiles of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We used computer-based immunoinformatic analysis and the newly resolved 3-dimensional (3D) structures of the SARS-CoV-2 S trimeric protein, together with analyses of the immunogenic profiles of SARS-CoV, to anticipate potential B-cell and T-cell epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein for vaccine design, particularly for peptide-driven vaccine design and serological diagnosis. Nine conserved linear B-cell epitopes and multiple discontinuous B-cell epitopes composed of 69 residues on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 trimeric S protein were predicted to be highly antigenic. We found that the SARS-CoV-2 S protein has a different antigenic profile than that of the SARS-CoV S protein due to the variations in their primary and 3D structures. Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 may exploit an immune evasion mechanism through two point mutations in the critical and conserved linear neutralization epitope (overlap with fusion peptide) around a sparsely glycosylated area. These mutations lead to a significant decrease in the antigenicity of this epitope in the SARS-CoV-2 S protein. In addition, 62 T-cell epitopes in the SARS-CoV-2 S protein were predicted in our study. The structure-based immunoinformatic analysis for the SARS-CoV-2 S protein in this study may improve vaccine design, diagnosis, and immunotherapy against the pandemic of COVID-19.
【저자키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Vaccine, S protein, B-cell and T-cell epitopes, 【초록키워드】 Structure, Mutation, SARS-CoV, neutralization, knowledge, Immunotherapy, Variation, Vaccine design, Diagnosis, coronavirus 2, Protein, immune evasion, B-cell epitope, antigenicity, respiratory, fusion peptide, epitope, serological, Critical, mechanism, T-cell epitope, B-cell, 3D Structures, Analysis, Point mutation, overlap, immunological profile, antigenic, immunogenic profile, residue, significant decrease, pandemic of COVID-19, trimeric S protein, linear B-cell epitope, trimeric, SARS-CoV S protein, IMPROVE, predicted, conserved, composed, addition, linear, glycosylated, resolved, highly antigenic, the SARS-CoV-2,