NCAM protein and SARS-COV-2 surface proteins: in-silico hypothetical evidence for the immunopathogenesis of Guillain-Barré Syndrome

Morsy, Sara

This study aimed at identifying human neural proteins that can be attacked by cross-reacting SARS-COV-2 antibodies causing Guillain-Barré Syndrome. These markers can be used for the diagnosis of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS). To achieve this goal, proteins implicated in the development of GBS were retrieved from literature. These human proteins were compared to SARS-COV-2 surface proteins to identify homologous sequences using Blastp. Then, MHC-I and MHC-II epitopes were determined in the homologous sequences and used for further analysis. Similar human and SARS-COV-2 epitopes were docked to the corresponding MHC molecule to compare the binding pattern of human and SARS-COV-2 proteins to the MHC molecule. Neural cell adhesion molecule is the only neural protein that showed homologous sequence to SARS-COV-2 envelope protein. The homologous sequence was part of HLA-A68 and HLA-DQA/HLA-DQB epitopes had a similar binding pattern to SARS-COV-2 envelope protein. Based on these results, the study suggests that NCAM may play a significant role in the immunopathogenesis of GBS. NCAM antibodies can be used as a marker for Guillain-Barré Syndrome. However, more experimental studies are needed to prove these results