Peptide Platform as a Powerful Tool in the Fight against COVID-19.
Viruses
; 13(8)2021 08 23.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1367926
ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in a global pandemic causing over 195 million infections and more than 4 million fatalities as of July 2021.To date, it has been demonstrated that a number of mutations in the spike glycoprotein (S protein) of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern abrogate or reduce the neutralization potency of several therapeutic antibodies and vaccine-elicited antibodies. Therefore, the development of additional vaccine platforms with improved supply and logistic profile remains a pressing need. In this work, we have validated the applicability of a peptide-based strategy focused on a preventive as well as a therapeutic purpose. On the basis of the involvement of the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), in addition to the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor in the mechanism of virus entry, we analyzed peptides bearing DPP4 sequences by protein-protein docking and assessed their ability to block pseudovirus infection in vitro. In parallel, we have selected and synthetized peptide sequences located within the highly conserved receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the S protein, and we found that RBD-based vaccines could better promote elicitation of high titers of neutralizing antibodies specific against the regions of interest, as confirmed by immunoinformatic methodologies and in vivo studies. These findings unveil a key antigenic site targeted by broadly neutralizing antibodies and pave the way to the design of pan-coronavirus vaccines.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Peptide Fragments
/
Dipeptidyl Peptidase 4
/
Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
/
SARS-CoV-2
Type of study:
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Vaccines
/
Variants
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
V13081667
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