Epitope-Based Immunoinformatics Approach on Nucleocapsid Protein of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2

Rakib, Ahmed; Sami, Saad Ahmed; Islam, Md. Ashiqul; Ahmed, Shahriar; Faiz, Farhana Binta; Khanam, Bibi Humayra; Marma, Kay Kay Shain; Rahman, Maksuda; Uddin, Mir Muhammad Nasir; Nainu, Firzan; Emran, Talha Bin; Simal-Gandara, Jesus

With an increasing fatality rate, severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has emerged as a promising threat to human health worldwide. Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is known as coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-2019), as a global pandemic. Additionally, the positive cases are still following an upward trend worldwide and as a corollary, there is a need for a potential vaccine to impede the progression of the disease. Lately, it has been documented that the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for viral replication and interferes with host immune responses. We comparatively analyzed the sequences of N protein of SARS-CoV-2 for the identification of core attributes and analyzed the ancestry through phylogenetic analysis. Subsequently, we predicted the most immunogenic epitope for the T-cell and B-cell. Importantly, our investigation mainly focused on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I potential peptides and NTASWFTAL interacted with most human leukocyte antigen (HLA) that are encoded by MHC class I molecules. Further, molecular docking analysis unveiled that NTASWFTAL possessed a greater affinity towards HLA and also available in a greater range of the population. Our study provides a consolidated base for vaccine design and we hope that this computational analysis will pave the way for designing novel vaccine candidates.