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Mallavarpu Ambrose J, Priya Veeraraghavan V, Kullappan M, Chellapandiyan P, Krishna Mohan S, Manivel VA. Comparison of Immunological Profiles of SARS-CoV-2 Variants in the COVID-19 Pandemic Trends: An Immunoinformatics Approach. Antibiotics (Basel) 2021; 10:535. [PMID: 34066389 PMCID: PMC8148159 DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics10050535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 04/28/2021] [Accepted: 05/04/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The current dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic have become a serious concern with the emergence of a series of mutant variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Unlike the previous strain, it is reported that the descendants are associated with increased risk of transmission yet causing less impact in terms of hospital admission, the severity of illness, or mortality. Moreover, the vaccine efficacy is also not believed to vary among the population depending on the variants of the virus and ethnicity. It has been determined that the mutations recorded in the spike gene and protein of the newly evolved viruses are specificallyresponsible for this transformation in the behavior of the virus and its disease condition. Hence, this study aimed to compare the immunogenic profiles of the spike protein from the latest variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus concerning the probability of COVID-19 severity. Genome sequences of the latest SARS-CoV-2 variants were obtained from GISAID and NCBI repositories. The translated protein sequences were run against T-cell and B-cell epitope prediction tools. Subsequently, antigenicity, immunogenicity, allergenicity, toxicity, and conservancy of the identified epitopes were ascertained using various prediction servers. Only the non-allergic and non-toxic potential epitopes were matched for population relevance by using the Human Leucocyte Antigen population registry in IEDB. Finally, the selected epitopes were validated by docking and simulation studies. The evaluated immunological parameters would concurrently reveal the severity of COVID-19, determining the infection rate of the pathogen. Our immunoinformatics approach disclosed that spike protein of the five variants was capable of forming potential T and B-cell epitopes with varying immune responses. Although the Wuhan strain showed a high number of epitope/HLA combinations, relatively less antigenicity and higher immunogenicity results in poor neutralizing capacity, which could be associated with increased disease severity. Our data demonstrate that increased viral antigenicity with moderate to high immunogenicity, and several potential epitope/HLA combinations in England strain, the USA, India, and South Africa variants, could possess a high neutralizing ability. Therefore, our findings reinforce that the newly circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2 might be associated with more infectiousness and less severe disease condition despite their greater viremia, as reported in the recent COVID-19 cases, whichconsequently determine their increased epidemiological fitness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenifer Mallavarpu Ambrose
- Department of Research, Panimalar Medical College Hospital & Research Institute, Varadharajapuram, Poonamallee, Chennai 600 123, Tamil Nadu, India; (J.M.A.); (M.K.)
| | - Vishnu Priya Veeraraghavan
- Department of Biochemistry, Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Saveetha University, Velappanchavadi, Chennai 600 077, Tamil Nadu, India;
| | - Malathi Kullappan
- Department of Research, Panimalar Medical College Hospital & Research Institute, Varadharajapuram, Poonamallee, Chennai 600 123, Tamil Nadu, India; (J.M.A.); (M.K.)
| | - Poongodi Chellapandiyan
- Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecological Nursing, Panimalar College of Nursing, Varadharajapuram, Poonamallee, Chennai 600 123, Tamil Nadu, India;
| | - Surapaneni Krishna Mohan
- Department of Research, Panimalar Medical College Hospital & Research Institute, Varadharajapuram, Poonamallee, Chennai 600 123, Tamil Nadu, India; (J.M.A.); (M.K.)
- Departments of Biochemistry, Molecular Virology, Clinical Skills and Simulation, Panimalar Medical College Hospital & Research Institute, Varadharajapuram, Poonamallee, Chennai 600 123, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Vivek Anand Manivel
- Department of Research, Panimalar Medical College Hospital & Research Institute, Varadharajapuram, Poonamallee, Chennai 600 123, Tamil Nadu, India; (J.M.A.); (M.K.)
- Rudbeck Laboratory, Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Uppsala University, 75185 Uppsala, Sweden
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