Peptide-based epitope design on non-structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has caused the severe pandemic, COVID19 and since then its been critical to produce a potent vaccine to prevent the quick transmission and also to avoid alarming deaths. Among all type of vaccines peptide based epitope design tend to outshine with respect to low cost production and more efficacy. Therefore, we started with obtaining the necessary protein sequences from NCBI database of SARS-CoV-2 virus and filtered with respect to antigenicity, virulency, pathogenicity and non- homologous nature with human proteome using different available online tools and servers. The promising proteins was checked for containing common B and T- cell epitopes. The structure for these proteins were modeled from I-TASSER server followed by its refinement and validation. The predicted common epitopes were mapped on modeled structures of proteins by using Pepitope server. The surface exposed epitopes were docked with the most common allele DRB1*0101 using the GalaxyPepDock server. The epitopes, ELEGIQYGRS from Leader protein (NSP1), YGPFVDRQTA from 3c-like proteinase (nsp5), DLKWARFPKS from NSP9 and YQDVNCTEVP from Surface glycoprotein (spike protein) are the epitopes which has more hydrogen bonds. Hence these four epitopes could be considered as a more promising epitopes and these epitopes can be used for future studies.

Clinical Relevance of HLA-DRB1 and -DQB1 Alleles in Iranian Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

Given the potential link between genetic risk factors and clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), this study aimed to explore the relationship between human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DRB1/DQB1 alleles and haplotypes and clinical sub-phenotypes of the disease in a group of Iranian SLE patients. HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles were determined by PCR-SSP in 127 SLE patients and 153 ethnically-matched healthy controls. The relationships between various clinical manifestations and HLA alleles/haplotypes were analyzed in the patients. We observed the positive associations of DRB1*07 and DRB1*07-DQB1*02 haplotypes with articular and pulmonary involvement (p=0.006 and p<0.001 respectively), DRB1*03 and DQB1*02 alleles, and DRB1*03-DQB1*02 haplotypes with cutaneous (p=0.03, p=0.004 and p=0.02 respectively) and renal involvement, and DRB1*13 as well as DRB1*13-DQB1*06 haplotypes with renal involvement. Conversely, negative associations of DRB1*13 with cutaneous and gastrointestinal disorders (p=0.004 and p=0.02 respectively) and DRB1*01 with renal involvement (p=0.03) were found in our patients. Patients carrying susceptible HLA-DRB1 alleles had a higher risk for expression of cutaneous involvement (p=0.03), anti-coagulant antibody development (p=0.01), and a lower risk for pulmonary disorders compared to patients' negatives for susceptible alleles (p=0.04). Our findings on associations between HLA risk allele (DRB1*03) as well as non-risk alleles with particular clinical manifestations and between the potentially protective allele (DRB1*01) and protection against renal involvement indicate the important role of HLA class II genes in predisposing of specific serological and clinical features of SLE disease which could be implicative for therapeutic applications and better management of SLE patients.