Sequence-based prediction of vaccine targets for inducing T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 utilizing the bioinformatics predictor RECON

Asaf Poran; Dewi Harjanto; Matthew Malloy; Michael S. Rooney; Lakshmi Srinivasan; Richard B. Gaynor

2 Second, our expansive database of supported HLA-I and HLA-II alleles provides us with the 3 ability to not only identify many peptide-MHC allele pairs, but to generate a narrow list of 4 peptides with many potential HLA pairings that could be presented by the entire USA, European 5 and Asian Pacific Islander populations. These advantages significantly improve upon previously 6 published findings (31). 7 Our algorithms predict peptide-MHC binding, which is necessary but not sufficient to induce a T 8 cell response. Therefore, further experimental work would be needed to refine the list of peptides 9 to strictly immunogenic ones. However, with the breadth of the list we are able to provide, the 10 likelihood of identifying many such epitopes is high. In addition, while the availability of 11 confirmed T cell reactions to SARS2-CoV-2 epitopes is limited, nine out of 10 highly ranking 12 peptide-HLA-I allele pairs that were previously assayed had a positive result in a T cell assay.