Designing and characterization of a SARS-CoV-2 immunogen with receptor binding motif grafted on a protein scaffold: An epitope-focused vaccine approach

Khatri, Ritika; Parray, Hilal Ahmad; Agrahari, Ashish Kumar; Rizvi, Zaigham Abbas; Kaul, Rachel; Raj, Sneha; Asthana, Shailendra; Mani, Shailendra; Samal, Sweety; Awasthi, Amit; Ahmed, Shubbir

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.04.148

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Table 3 summarizes the typical electrochemical-sensing technologies for nucleic acids, enzymes, and hormones [55]. Coronavirus (COVID-19), a pandemic that has killed many people, is on the rise again, and has spread all over the world, causing many global health problems [65,66]. Though new ways of detecting COVID-19 are being worked on all the time, there is still a need for new ways to detect COVID-19 early and ensure its monitoring.…”

Section: Electrochemical Biosensing For Viral Infectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical Sensors and Their Applications: A Review

et al. 2022

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The world of sensors is diverse and is advancing at a rapid pace due to the fact of its high demand and constant technological improvements. Electrochemical sensors provide a low-cost and convenient solution for the detection of variable analytes and are widely utilized in agriculture, food, and oil industries as well as in environmental and biomedical applications. The popularity of electrochemical sensing stems from two main advantages: the variability of the reporting signals, such as the voltage, current, overall power output, or electrochemical impedance, and the low theoretical detection limits that originate from the differences in the Faradaic and nonFaradaic currents. This review article attempts to cover the latest advances and applications of electrochemical sensors in different industries. The role of nanomaterials in electrochemical sensor research and advancements is also examined. We believe the information presented here will encourage further efforts on the understanding and progress of electrochemical sensors.

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Section: Electrochemical Biosensing For Viral Infectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical Sensors and Their Applications: A Review

et al. 2022

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“…The RBD within the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for most of the neutralizing antibodies against this virus [ 26 ], and the receptor-binding motif (RBM) is considered the most important region due to its direct interaction with the ACE2 receptor [ 27 , 28 ]. As the RBM is not glycosylated [ 29 ], it has been used in many vaccine prototypes [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. If glycosylation does not matter, a bacterial expression system could be suitable for the production of RBM-containing fusion proteins; thus, the RBM was used for insertion into the HBc/G in our study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a SARS-CoV-2 VLP Vaccine: HBc/G as a Carrier for SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBM and Nucleocapsid Protein-Derived Peptides

Petrovskis,

Skrastina,

Jansons

et al. 2024

Vaccines

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Virus-like particles (VLPs) offer an attractive possibility for the development of vaccines. Recombinant core antigen (HBc) of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) was expressed in different systems, and the E. coli expression system was shown to be effective for the production of HBc VLPs. Here, we used HBc of the HBV genotype G (HBc/G) as a technologically promising VLP carrier for the presentation of spike RBM and nucleocapsid protein-derived peptides of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant for subsequent immunological evaluations of obtained fusion proteins. The major immunodominant region (MIR) of the HBc/G protein was modified through the insertion of a receptor binding motif (RBM) from the S protein or B-cell epitope-containing peptide from the N protein. The C-terminus of the two truncated HBc/G proteins was used for the insertion of a group of five cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes from the N protein. After expression in E. coli, the MIR-derived proteins were found to be insoluble and were recovered through step-wise solubilization with urea, followed by refolding. Despite the lack of correct VLPs, the chimeric proteins induced high levels of antibodies in BALB/c mice. These antibodies specifically recognized either eukaryotically expressed hRBD or bacterially expressed N protein (2–220) of SARS-CoV-2. CTL-epitope-containing proteins were purified as VLPs. The production of cytokines was analyzed through flow cytometry after stimulation of T-cells with target CTL peptides. Only a protein with a deleted polyarginine (PA) domain was able to induce the specific activation of T-cells. At the same time, the T-cell response against the carrier HBc/G protein was detected for both proteins. The neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped murine retrovirus with anti-HBc/G-RBM sera was found to be low.

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