?:abstract
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The global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) urgently requires an effective vaccine for prevention. In this study, 66 epitopes containing pentapeptides of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the IEDB database were compared with the amino acid sequence of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and 66 potentially immune-related peptides of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were obtained. Based on the SNPs analysis of spike protein of 1218 SARS-CoV-2 isolates, 52 easily mutated sites were identified and used for vaccine epitope screening. The best vaccine candidate epitopes in the 66 peptides of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were screened out through mutation and immunoinformatics analysis. The best candidate epitopes were connected by different linkers in silico to obtain vaccine candidate sequences. The results showed that 16 epitopes were relatively conservative, immunological, non-toxic and non-allergenic, could induce the secretion of cytokines and more likely to be exposed on the surface of spike protein. They were both B cell epitopes and T cell epitopes, which could recognize a certain number of HLA molecules and had high coverage rates in different populations. Moreover, epitopes 897-913 were predicted possible cross-immunoprotection for SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. The results of vaccine candidate sequences screening suggested that sequences (without linker, with linker GGGSGGG, EAAAK, GPGPG and KK, respectively) were the best. The proteins translated by these sequences were relatively stable, with high antigenic index and good biological activity. Our study provided vaccine candidate epitopes and sequences for the research of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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