tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Front Immunol
. 2022 Jan 28;13:752622.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.752622. eCollection 2022.
Three Specific Potential Epitopes That Could Be Recognized by T Cells of Convalescent COVID-19 Patients Were Identified From Spike Protein
Yunwen Zhang[SUP] 1 2 3 [/SUP], Zhengrong Yang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Mingyuan Tang[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Hao Li[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Tian Tang[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Guilian Li[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Yifan Zhong[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Xiaomin Zhang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Xiaohui Wang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Chuan Wang[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are used to prevent viral infection by inducing neutralizing antibody in the body, but according to the existing experience of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS) infection, T-cell immunity could provide a longer durable protection period than antibody. The research on SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell epitope can provide target antigen for the development and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines, which is conducive to obtain COVID-19 vaccine that can provide long-term protection. For screening specific T-cell epitopes, a SARS-CoV-2 S protein peptide library with a peptide length of 15 amino acids was synthesized. Through flow cytometry to detect percentage of IFN-γ[SUP]+[/SUP] T cells after mixed COVID-19 convalescent patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cell with peptide library, seven peptides (P77, P14, P24, P38, P48, P74, and P84) that can be recognized by the T cells of COVID-19 convalescent patients were found. After excluding the nonspecific cross-reactions with unexposed population, three SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell potential epitopes (P38, P48, and P84) were finally screened with the positive reaction rates between 15.4% and 48.0% in COVID-19 convalescent patients. This study also provided the HLA allele information of peptide-positive-response COVID-19 convalescent patients, thus predicting the population coverage of these three potential epitopes. Some HLA alleles showed higher frequency of occurrence in COVID-19 patients than in total Chinese population but no HLA alleles related to the T-cell peptide response and the severity of COVID-19. This research provides three potential T-cell epitopes that are helpful for the design and efficacy evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines. The HLA information provided by this research supplies reference significance for subsequent research such as finding the relation of HLA genotype with disease susceptibility.
Keywords: HLA; SARS-CoV-2; T-cell epitope; cross-reaction; spike protein.
. 2022 Jan 28;13:752622.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.752622. eCollection 2022.
Three Specific Potential Epitopes That Could Be Recognized by T Cells of Convalescent COVID-19 Patients Were Identified From Spike Protein
Yunwen Zhang[SUP] 1 2 3 [/SUP], Zhengrong Yang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Mingyuan Tang[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Hao Li[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Tian Tang[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Guilian Li[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Yifan Zhong[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Xiaomin Zhang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Xiaohui Wang[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Chuan Wang[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 35154095
- PMCID: PMC8831549
- DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.752622
Abstract
The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are used to prevent viral infection by inducing neutralizing antibody in the body, but according to the existing experience of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS) infection, T-cell immunity could provide a longer durable protection period than antibody. The research on SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell epitope can provide target antigen for the development and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines, which is conducive to obtain COVID-19 vaccine that can provide long-term protection. For screening specific T-cell epitopes, a SARS-CoV-2 S protein peptide library with a peptide length of 15 amino acids was synthesized. Through flow cytometry to detect percentage of IFN-γ[SUP]+[/SUP] T cells after mixed COVID-19 convalescent patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cell with peptide library, seven peptides (P77, P14, P24, P38, P48, P74, and P84) that can be recognized by the T cells of COVID-19 convalescent patients were found. After excluding the nonspecific cross-reactions with unexposed population, three SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell potential epitopes (P38, P48, and P84) were finally screened with the positive reaction rates between 15.4% and 48.0% in COVID-19 convalescent patients. This study also provided the HLA allele information of peptide-positive-response COVID-19 convalescent patients, thus predicting the population coverage of these three potential epitopes. Some HLA alleles showed higher frequency of occurrence in COVID-19 patients than in total Chinese population but no HLA alleles related to the T-cell peptide response and the severity of COVID-19. This research provides three potential T-cell epitopes that are helpful for the design and efficacy evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines. The HLA information provided by this research supplies reference significance for subsequent research such as finding the relation of HLA genotype with disease susceptibility.
Keywords: HLA; SARS-CoV-2; T-cell epitope; cross-reaction; spike protein.