MERS-CoV棘突蛋白表位多肽疫苗设计及在小鼠体内免疫效果分析

Bioinformatics-based Design of Peptide Vaccine Candidates Targeting Spike Protein of MERS-CoV and Immunity analysis in Mice

筛选有效的免疫原,研制安全有效的疫苗,是预防中东呼吸综合征冠状病毒(Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus,MERS-CoV)感染的有利武器。本研究应用生物信息学方法,预测了MERS-CoV棘突蛋白(Spike,S)上的多肽抗原表位。基于生物信息学分析结果人工合成9条多肽并偶联钥孔戚血蓝素后,分别免疫BALB/C小鼠,检测了多肽诱导的体液免疫和细胞免疫应答。结果表明,YVDVGPDSVKSACIEVDIQQTFFDKTWPRPIDVSKADGI的多肽,三次免疫小鼠后,可在小鼠体内诱导较强的IgG抗体(滴度达1∶10 000)和较高水平的抗原特异性细胞免疫应答。本研究结果为基于生物信息学预测的多肽疫苗的设计及MERS-CoV疫苗的研制提供了科学参考。

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus（MERS-CoV）was identified as a novel human coronavirus and posed great threat to public health world wide,which calls for the development of effective and safe vaccine urgently.In the study,peptide epitopes tagrgeting spike antigen were predicted based on bioinformatics methods.Nine polypeptides with high scores were synthesized and linked to keyhole limpet hemocyanin（KLH）.Female BALB/C mice were immunized with individual polypeptide-KLH,and the total IgG was detected by ELISA as well as the cellular mediated immunity（CMI）was analyzed using ELIspot assay.The results showed that an individual peptide of YVDVGPDSVKSACIEVDIQQTFFDKTWPRPIDVSKADGI could induce the highest level of total IgG as well as CMI（high frequency of IFN-γsecretion）against MERS-CoV antigen in mice.Our study identified a promising peptide vaccine candidate against MERS-CoV and provided an experimental support for bioinformatics-based design of peptide vaccine.