TY - JOUR T1 - Zebrafish studies on the vaccine candidate to COVID-19, the Spike protein: Production of antibody and adverse reaction JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.10.20.346262 SP - 2020.10.20.346262 AU - Bianca H Ventura Fernandes AU - Natália Martins Feitosa AU - Ana Paula Barbosa AU - Camila Gasque Bomfim AU - Anali M. B. Garnique AU - Francisco I. F. Gomes AU - Rafael T. Nakajima AU - Marco A. A. Belo AU - Silas Fernandes Eto AU - Dayanne Carla Fernandes AU - Guilherme Malafaia AU - Wilson G. Manrique AU - Gabriel Conde AU - Roberta R. C. Rosales AU - Iris Todeschini AU - Ilo Rivero AU - Edgar Llontop AU - German G. Sgro AU - Gabriel Umaji Oka AU - Natalia F Bueno AU - Fausto K. Ferraris AU - Mariana T. Q. de Magalhaes AU - Renata J. Medeiros AU - Juliana M. M Gomes AU - Mara de Souza Junqueira AU - Katia Conceição AU - Letícia G. Pontes AU - Antonio Condino-Neto AU - Andrea C. Perez AU - Leonardo J. G. Barcellos AU - Jose Dias Correa junior AU - Erick G. Dorlass AU - Niels O. S Camara AU - Edison Luiz Durigon AU - Fernando Q. Cunha AU - Rafael H. Nóbrega AU - Glaucia M. Machado-Santelli AU - Chuck Farah AU - Flávio P Veras AU - Jorge Galindo-Villegas AU - Leticia Costa-Lotufo AU - Thiago M. Cunha AU - Roger Chammas AU - Cristiane R. Guzzo AU - Luciani R Carvalho AU - Ives Charlie-Silva Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/10/20/2020.10.20.346262.abstract N2 - Establishing new experimental animal models to assess the safety and immune response to the antigen used in the development of COVID-19 vaccine is an imperative issue. Based on the advantages of using zebrafish as a model in research, herein we suggest doing this to test the safety of the putative vaccine candidates and to study immune response against the virus. We produced a recombinant N-terminal fraction of the Spike SARS-CoV-2 protein and injected it into adult female zebrafish. The specimens generated humoral immunity and passed the antibodies to the eggs. However, they presented adverse reactions and inflammatory responses similar to severe cases of human COVID-19. The analysis of the structure and function of zebrafish and human Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, the main human receptor for virus infection, presented remarkable sequence similarities. Moreover, bioinformatic analysis predicted protein-protein interaction of the Spike SARS-CoV-2 fragment and the Toll-like receptor pathway. It might help in the choice of future therapeutic pharmaceutical drugs to be studied. Based on the in vivo and in silico results presented here, we propose the zebrafish as a model for translational research into the safety of the vaccine and the immune response of the vertebrate organism to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -