Potential epitopes and mutation characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus spike protein / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To predict the epitopes of the spike protein of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and to analyze the mutation characteristics of this protein.Methods:The gene sequences of 2019-nCoV was downloaded from GenBank and Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data database (as of March 4, 2020). ClustalW, MEGA 7.0, Immune Epitope Database and other software were used for predicting potential B lymphocyte and T lymphocyte epitopes of spike protein, and then mutations were compared in epitope and non-epitope regions. Statistical analysis was performed with chi-square test.Results:There were 130 potential epitopes, including 25 linear B lymphocyte epitopes, 18 non-linear B lymphocyte epitopes, 71 human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class-Ⅰ restricted T lymphocyte epitopes, and 16 HLA class-Ⅱ restricted T lymphocyte epitopes in spike protein. S 404-426displayed the higher antigenicity-score, and its population coverage was 73.4% in China. Compared with the spike protein before January 31, the mutation frequencies of spike protein were increased both in non-epitope (15.4% vs 21.7%) and epitope regions (6.2% vs 8.7%) after January 31, but the differences were not statistically significant (both P>0.05). Conclusions:The study identifies several epitopes of 2019-nCoV spike protein, which provides a preliminary basis for the study of 2019-nCoV vaccine. Mutations in spike protein have an increasing trend which needs more attention and research in the future.