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Current Drug Discovery Technologies

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ISSN (Print): 1570-1638
ISSN (Online): 1875-6220

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Research Article

In-Silico Designing of a Multi-Epitope Vaccine against SARS-CoV2 and Studying the Interaction of the Vaccine with Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron Variants of Concern

Author(s): Aranya Pal, Nibedita Pyne and Santanu Paul*

Volume 20, Issue 1, 2023

Published on: 20 October, 2022

Article ID: e090922208713 Pages: 22

DOI: 10.2174/1570163819666220909114900

Price: $65

Abstract

Background: The sudden appearance of the SARS-CoV2 virus has almost changed the future of vaccine development. There have been many different approaches to vaccination; among them, computational vaccinology in the form of multi-epitope vaccines with excellent immunological properties and minimal contamination or other adverse reactions has emerged as a promising strategy with a lot of room for further study in this area.

Objective: Designing a multi-epitope vaccine from the spike protein of SARS-CoV2 based on immunoinformatics and in-silico techniques. Evaluating the binding affinity of the constructed vaccine against the major variants of concern (alpha, beta, delta, and omicron) using docking studies.

Methods: The potential antigenic, immunogenic, and non-allergic T-cell epitopes were thoroughly explored using IEDB, NetCTL1.2, and NetMHCII pan 3.2 servers. The best suitable linker was identified using the ExPASy Protparam tool and VERIFY 3D. The 3D model of the vaccine was developed by RaptorX and the model was validated using ERRAT, Z-score, and Ramachandran Plot. Docking studies of the vaccine with TLR-2, 3, 4, and 7 and alpha, beta, delta, and omicron variants were performed using HADDOCK 2.4.

Results: The vaccine construct showed good antigenic and immunogenic scores and was non-allergic as well. The model was capable of binding to all four selected Toll-like receptors. Docking scores with variants were also promising.

Conclusion: All the variants showed good binding ability with the vaccine construct. Interaction with the alpha variant was found to be the most intense, followed by delta, beta, and omicron.

Keywords: Epitopes, multi-epitope vaccine, in-silico, variants of concern, docking, COVID-19.

Graphical Abstract

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