Conserved hla binding peptides from five non-structural proteins of sars-cov-2—an in silico glance

Marchan, Jose

Abstract Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a dangerous global threat that has no clinically approved treatment yet. Bioinformatics represent an outstanding approach to reveal key immunogenic regions in viral proteins. Here, five non-structural proteins (NSP) of SARS-CoV-2 (NSP7, NSP8, NSP9, NSP12, and NSP13) were screening for potential human leukocyte antigen (HLA) binding peptides. These peptides showed robust viral antigenicity, immunogenicity, and a marked interaction with HLA alleles. Interestingly, several peptides showed affinity by HLA class I (HLA-I) alleles that commonly activates to NK cells. Moreover, HLA-I and HLA class II (HLA-II) binding peptides induced humoral and cell-mediated responses after in silico vaccination. Notably, these peptides are conserved among severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). These results may open further in vitro and in vivo investigations to develop novel therapeutic strategies against coronaviral infections.