Abstract:
COVID-19 brought scenes from sci-fi movies into real life. Infected individuals
include asymptomatic cases to severe disease leading to death, suggesting the
involvement of the genetic constitution of populations and pathogens
contributing to differential individuals’ outcomes. To investigate shared
immunogenic features between SARS-CoV-2 targets and other
coronaviruses, we modeled their peptides in 3D structures of HLA-A*02:01
(pMHC), comparing their molecular surfaces These structures were also
compared with a panel of epitopes from unrelated viruses, looking for
potential triggers conferring cross-protection in uninfected individuals. As
expected, SARS-CoV 1 and 2 peptides share molecular and physicochemical
features, providing an explanation for the verified experimental
immunogenicity among them. Surprisingly, even discordant sequences from
human coronaviruses 229E, OC43 and epitopes from unrelated viruses
involved in endemic human infections exhibit similar fingerprints of
immunogenicity with SARS-CoV-2 peptides. The same approach indicates a
conserved CD8+ T cell recognition between Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 sequences
and altered peptides from Variants of Concern. Examination of structural
data over epitope sequence analysis here could explain how previous
infections may produce a heterologous immunity response in a global
scale against emergent diseases such as Covid-19, mitigating its full lethal
potential, and paves the way for the development of wide spectrum
vaccine development.
