Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Preliminary identification of potential vaccine targets for the COVID-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) based on SARS-CoV immunological studies

View ORCID ProfileSyed Faraz Ahmed, View ORCID ProfileAhmed A. Quadeer, View ORCID ProfileMatthew R. McKay
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.03.933226
Syed Faraz Ahmed
1Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Syed Faraz Ahmed
Ahmed A. Quadeer
1Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Ahmed A. Quadeer
  • For correspondence: eeaaquadeer@ust.hk m.mckay@ust.hk
Matthew R. McKay
1Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
2Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Matthew R. McKay
  • For correspondence: eeaaquadeer@ust.hk m.mckay@ust.hk
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

The beginning of 2020 has seen the emergence of COVID-19 outbreak caused by a novel coronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). There is an imminent need to better understand this new virus and to develop ways to control its spread. In this study, we sought to gain insights for vaccine design against SARS-CoV-2 by considering the high genetic similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, which caused the outbreak in 2003, and leveraging existing immunological studies of SARS-CoV. By screening the experimentally-determined SARS-CoV-derived B cell and T cell epitopes in the immunogenic structural proteins of SARS-CoV, we identified a set of B cell and T cell epitopes derived from the spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins that map identically to SARS-CoV-2 proteins. As no mutation has been observed in these identified epitopes among the available SARS-CoV-2 sequences (as of 9 February 2020), immune targeting of these epitopes may potentially offer protection against this novel virus. For the T cell epitopes, we performed a population coverage analysis of the associated MHC alleles and proposed a set of epitopes that is estimated to provide broad coverage globally, as well as in China. Our findings provide a screened set of epitopes that can help guide experimental efforts towards the development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.

Footnotes

  • ↵# Joint first authors

  • 1. Updated the name of the new coronavirus from 2019-nCoV to SARS-CoV-2 2. Updated version of the analysis, incorporating additional sequence data of SARS-CoV-2 that has become available (as of February 9, 2020).

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted February 12, 2020.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Preliminary identification of potential vaccine targets for the COVID-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) based on SARS-CoV immunological studies
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Preliminary identification of potential vaccine targets for the COVID-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) based on SARS-CoV immunological studies
Syed Faraz Ahmed, Ahmed A. Quadeer, Matthew R. McKay
bioRxiv 2020.02.03.933226; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.03.933226
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Preliminary identification of potential vaccine targets for the COVID-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) based on SARS-CoV immunological studies
Syed Faraz Ahmed, Ahmed A. Quadeer, Matthew R. McKay
bioRxiv 2020.02.03.933226; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.03.933226

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Bioinformatics
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3573)
  • Biochemistry (7517)
  • Bioengineering (5478)
  • Bioinformatics (20671)
  • Biophysics (10254)
  • Cancer Biology (7927)
  • Cell Biology (11566)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6563)
  • Ecology (10130)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13532)
  • Genetics (9496)
  • Genomics (12788)
  • Immunology (7869)
  • Microbiology (19443)
  • Molecular Biology (7611)
  • Neuroscience (41862)
  • Paleontology (306)
  • Pathology (1252)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2179)
  • Physiology (3249)
  • Plant Biology (7005)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1291)
  • Synthetic Biology (1941)
  • Systems Biology (5405)
  • Zoology (1107)