Identification of four linear B-cell epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein able to elicit neutralizing antibodies

Li, Lin; Zhao, Zhongpeng; Yang, Xiaolan; Li, Wendong; Chen, Shaolong; Sun, Ting; Wang, Lu; He, Yufei; Liu, Guang; Han, Xiaohan; Wen, Hao; Liu, Yong; Chen, Yifan; Wang, Haoyu; Li, Jing; Su, Zhongyi; Du, Chen; Wang, Yiting; Li, Xinyang; Yang, Zeqian; Wang, Jie; Li, Min; Wang, Tiecheng; Wang, Ying; Fan, Yubo; Wang, Hui; Zhang, Jing

SARS-CoV-2 unprecedentedly threatens the public health at worldwide level. There is an urgent need to develop an effective vaccine within a highly accelerated time. Here, we present the most comprehensive S-protein-based linear B-cell epitope candidate list by combining epitopes predicted by eight widely-used immune-informatics methods with the epitopes curated from literature published between Feb 6, 2020 and July 10, 2020. We find four top prioritized linear B-cell epitopes in the hotspot regions of S protein can specifically bind with serum antibodies from horse, mouse, and monkey inoculated with different SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates or a patient recovering from COVID-19. The four linear B-cell epitopes can induce neutralizing antibodies against both pseudo and live SARS-CoV-2 virus in immunized wild-type BALB/c mice. This study suggests that the four linear B-cell epitopes are potentially important candidates for serological assay or vaccine development.