Scrutinizing the SARS-CoV-2 protein information for the designing an effective vaccine encompassing both the T-cell and B-cell epitopes

Neha Jain; Uma Shankar; Prativa Majee; Amit Kumar

Mutations in the spike protein have also been reported to be responsible for the change in host cell tropism [12] . The S protein is considered most antigenic and thereby can evoke immune responses and generate neutralizing antibodies that can block the virus attachment to the host cells [13] . Other viral proteins which were explored for vaccine development include N protein, E protein and the NSP16 proteins [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] . Almost all the platforms for vaccine development for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV have been investigated including the lifeattenuated ones, recombinant viruses, sub-unit protein vaccines, DNA vaccines, Viral vectorbased vaccines, nanoparticle-based vaccines, etc. which may form the base for the vaccine designing against the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 [10, 19] . Here we have designed a multiepitope-based vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 using next generation vaccinology approach where the recently available genome and proteome of the SARS-CoV-2 were maneuvered and a potential vaccine candidate was conceived. Similar strategy was employed previously for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] as well as certain findings are reported for the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 [26] [27] [28] . While immunoinformatics techniques was utilized by groups to predict the B-cell and cytotoxic T-cell epitopes in the SARS-CoV-2 surface glycoprotein, N protein [27] [28] [29] , others have utilized the information to design epitope-based vaccine based on the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein [26] . Along with the structural proteins, utilizing the non-structural and accessory proteins for the vaccine development can aid in better development of an efficacious vaccine for long term by neutralizing the mutation rate of this RNA virus. In this study, we explored the whole proteome of SARS-CoV-2 to scrutinize the highly conserved antigenic epitopes for the construction of a multi-epitope vaccine candidate that can effectively elicit both humoral and cellular mediated immune response against COVID-19. The constructed vaccine product has high population coverage and along with adaptive immunity, can as well lead to initiation of innate immune response further enhancing the generation of memory immunity.