Rational Design of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoproteins To Increase Immunogenicity By T Cell Epitope Engineering.

ABSTRACT: The current COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in millions of confirmed cases and thousands of deaths globally. Extensive efforts and progress have been made to develop effective and safe vaccines against COVID-19. A primary target of these vaccines is the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein, and many studies utilized structural vaccinology techniques to either stabilize the protein or fix the receptor-binding domain at certain states. In this study, we extended an evolutionary protein design algorithm, EvoDesign, to create thousands of stable S protein variants without perturbing the surface conformation and B cell epitopes of the S protein. We then evaluated the mutated S protein candidates based on predicted MHC-II T cell promiscuous epitopes as well as the epitopes' similarit

SUBMITTER: Ong E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7430581 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature