Artificial intelligence predicts the immunogenic landscape of SARS-CoV-2: toward universal blueprints for vaccine designs

Brandon Malone; Boris Simovski; Clement Moline; Jun Cheng; Marius Gheorghe; Hugues Fontenelle; Ioannis Vardaxis; Simen Tennoe; Jenny-Ann Malmberg; Richard Stratford; Trevor Clancy

In a cohort study of 128 recovered SARS-CoV patients, the immune correlates of protection were investigated and broad CD8, CD4 and neutralizing antibody response were all shown to contribute to protection [24] . The CD4 T cell responses mainly clustered in the S-protein, presumably as B cell antibody responses to the S-protein requires the help of CD4 T cells specific to the same protein [25] . Given that in the before mentioned study by Mitchison et al that neutralizing antibody responses correlated with CD8 T cell responses against a broad set of CD8 T cell epitopes in the S-protein, a vaccine design that centers on the S-protein or any other viral protein will need to stimulate a broad CD8 response [26] . In the previous study, robust T cell responses correlated significantly with higher neutralizing antibody activity, consistent with the hypothesis that T cells play an important role in the generation of antibody responses in recovered SARS-CoV patients [24] . The concept of considering author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.