In Silico and In Vivo Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Predicted Epitopes-Based Candidate Vaccine

Shehata, Mahmoud M.; Mahmoud, Sara H.; Tarek, Mohammad; Al-Karmalawy, Ahmed A.; Mahmoud, Amal; Mostafa, Ahmed; M. Elhefnawi, Mahmoud; Ali, Mohamed A.

doi:10.3390/molecules26206182

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In Silico and In Vivo Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Predicted Epitopes-Based Candidate Vaccine

Mahmoud M. Shehata

^1,2,*,†

Sara H. Mahmoud

^1,†,

Mohammad Tarek

Ahmed A. Al-Karmalawy

⁴

Amal Mahmoud

^5,*

Ahmed Mostafa

Mahmoud M. Elhefnawi

⁶

and

Mohamed A. Ali

Center of Scientific Excellence for Influenza Viruses, National Research Centre, Giza 12622, Egypt

Institute of Medical Virology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, 35392 Giessen, Germany

Bioinformatics Department, Armed Forces College of Medicine (AFCM), Cairo 11757, Egypt

⁴

Department of Pharmaceutical Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Horus University-Egypt, New Damietta 34518, Egypt

⁵

Department of Biology, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box. 1982, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia

⁶

National Research Centre, Biomedical Informatics and Cheminformatics Group, Informatics and Systems Department, Cairo 12622, Egypt

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Academic Editor: Hirokazu Tamamura

Molecules 2021, 26(20), 6182; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26206182

Received: 3 September 2021 / Revised: 7 October 2021 / Accepted: 11 October 2021 / Published: 13 October 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Peptide-Lead Drug Discovery)

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Abstract

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)) has caused relatively high mortality rates in humans throughout the world since its first detection in late December 2019, leading to the most devastating pandemic of the current century. Consequently, SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic interventions have received high priority from public health authorities. Despite increased COVID-19 infections, a vaccine or therapy to cover all the population is not yet available. Herein, immunoinformatics and custommune tools were used to identify B and T-cells epitopes from the available SARS-CoV-2 sequences spike (S) protein. In the in silico predictions, six B cell epitopes QTGKIADYNYK, TEIYQASTPCNGVEG, LQSYGFQPT, IRGDEVRQIAPGQTGKIADYNYKLPD, FSQILPDPSKPSKRS and PFAMQMAYRFNG were cross-reacted with MHC-I and MHC-II T-cells binding epitopes and selected for vaccination in experimental animals for evaluation as candidate vaccine(s) due to their high antigenic matching and conserved score. The selected six peptides were used individually or in combinations to immunize female Balb/c mice. The immunized mice raised reactive antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in two different short peptides located in receptor binding domain and S2 region. In combination groups, an additive effect was demonstrated in-comparison with single peptide immunized mice. This study provides novel epitope-based peptide vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2. View Full-Text

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; prediction; epitopes; vaccine

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MDPI and ACS Style

Shehata, M.M.; Mahmoud, S.H.; Tarek, M.; Al-Karmalawy, A.A.; Mahmoud, A.; Mostafa, A.; M. Elhefnawi, M.; Ali, M.A. In Silico and In Vivo Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Predicted Epitopes-Based Candidate Vaccine. Molecules 2021, 26, 6182. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26206182

AMA Style

Shehata MM, Mahmoud SH, Tarek M, Al-Karmalawy AA, Mahmoud A, Mostafa A, M. Elhefnawi M, Ali MA. In Silico and In Vivo Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Predicted Epitopes-Based Candidate Vaccine. Molecules. 2021; 26(20):6182. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26206182

Chicago/Turabian Style

Shehata, Mahmoud M., Sara H. Mahmoud, Mohammad Tarek, Ahmed A. Al-Karmalawy, Amal Mahmoud, Ahmed Mostafa, Mahmoud M. Elhefnawi, and Mohamed A. Ali. 2021. "In Silico and In Vivo Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 Predicted Epitopes-Based Candidate Vaccine" Molecules 26, no. 20: 6182. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26206182

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