title: Epitope-Based Vaccine Target Screening against Highly Pathogenic MERS-CoV: An In Silico Approach Applied to Emerging Infectious Diseases.
abstract: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) with pandemic potential is a major worldwide threat to public health. However, vaccine development for this pathogen lags behind as immunity associated with protection is currently largely unknown. In this study, an immunoinformatics-driven genome-wide screening strategy of vaccine targets was performed to thoroughly screen the vital and effective dominant immunogens against MERS-CoV. Conservancy and population coverage analysis of the epitopes were done by the Immune Epitope Database. The results showed that the nucleocapsid (N) protein of MERS-CoV might be a better protective immunogen with high conservancy and potential eliciting both neutralizing antibodies and T-cell responses compared with spike (S) protein. Further, the B-cell, helper T-cell and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes were screened and mapped to the N protein. A total of 15 linear and 10 conformal B-cell epitopes that may induce protective neutralizing antibodies were obtained. Additionally, a total of 71 peptides with 9-mer core sequence were identified as helper T-cell epitopes, and 34 peptides were identified as CTL epitopes. Based on the maximum HLA binding alleles, top 10 helper T-cell epitopes and CTL epitopes that may elicit protective cellular immune responses against MERS-CoV were selected as MERS vaccine candidates. Population coverage analysis showed that the putative helper T-cell epitopes and CTL epitopes could cover the vast majority of the population in 15 geographic regions considered where vaccine would be employed. The B- and T-cell stimulation potentials of the screened epitopes is to be further validated for their efficient use as vaccines against MERS-CoV. Collectively, this study provides novel vaccine target candidates and may prompt further development of vaccines against MERS-CoV and other emerging infectious diseases.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Jiandong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Prenatal Diagnosis Center, Shijiazhuang Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Sijin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Yumei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Meini
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Jianfan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Yanhan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Ningzhu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Haixuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming, China.|Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Arbo Infectious Disease Control Research (Preparing), Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Kunming, China.
authors.forename: Yunzhang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing / Q000276:immunology; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular / Q000276:immunology*; D065207:Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus / Q000276:immunology*; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D064370:Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / Q000276:immunology; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D019590:Nucleocapsid Proteins; D064370:Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; D014765:Viral Vaccines