A bioinformatic prediction of antigen presentation from SARS‐CoV‐2 spike protein revealed a theorical correlation of HLA‐DRB1*01 with COVID‐19 fatality in Mexican population: an ecological approach

Romero‐López, JP; Carnalla‐Cortés, M; Pacheco‐Olvera, DL; Ocampo‐Godínez, JM; Oliva‐Ramírez, J; Moreno‐Manjón, J; Bernal‐Alferes, B; López‐Olmedo, N; García‐Latorre, E; Domínguez‐López, ML; Reyes‐Sandoval, A; Jiménez‐Zamudio, L

SARS‐CoV‐2 infection is causing a pandemic disease that is reflected in challenging public health problems worldwide. HLA‐based epitope prediction and its association with disease outcomes provide an important base for treatment design. A bioinformatic prediction of T cell epitopes and their restricted HLA class I and II alleles was performed to obtain immunogenic epitopes and HLA alleles from the spike protein of the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus. Also, a correlation with the predicted fatality rate of hospitalized patients in 28 states of Mexico was done. Here, we describe a set of ten highly immunogenic epitopes, together with different HLA alleles that can efficiently present these epitopes to T cells. Most of these epitopes are located within the S1 subunit of the spike protein, suggesting that this area is highly immunogenic. A statistical negative correlation was found between the frequency of HLA‐DRB1*01 and the fatality rate in hospitalized patients in Mexico. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.