Glycosylation, ligand binding sites and antigenic variations between membrane glycoprotein of COVID-19 and related coronaviruses

Dawood, Ali A.

A new coronavirus strain has wreaked havoc on human lives so the WHO was declared as a pandemic since 20th March 2020. The Membrane glycoprotein MP spans the viral envelope and it has a highly conserved glycosylation sequence. Aim Our study goal was to find out the N-glycosylation, ligand binding sites, and antigenic variations between COVID-19 and other associated viruses. Methods We performed In silico methodologies for serial analysis at both an operational and result/output level is assessed and compared study factors. Results We detected high similarity in sequence alignment for >89% between COVID-19 MP and other MP of CoVs. Prediction of N-glycosylation and cytotoxic T-cell epitopes, we identified precisely sites between SARS-CoV-2 MP and Pangolin CoV MP 100%. We also didn’t obtain any similarity in ligand binding site residues between MP sequences. Our study didn’t reveal any similarity in CTL epitope predication between coronaviruses under study using the CTLPred server. Conclusions Our results exhibit that the membrane glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is closely associated with predecessor SARS-CoVs specifically Pngolin CoV. Prediction of novel CTL epitopes may substantial scopes for the expansion of a peptide-based vaccine for the inhibition virion assembly of SARS-CoV-2.