Preliminary identification of potential vaccine targets for 2019-nCoV based on SARS-CoV immunological studies

Abstract

The beginning of 2020 has seen the emergence of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Since the first reported case in the Wuhan city of China, 2019-nCoV has spread to other cities in China as well as to multiple countries across four continents. There is an imminent need to better understand this novel virus and to develop ways to control its spread. In this study, we sought to gain insights for vaccine design against 2019-nCoV by considering the high genetic similarity between 2019-nCoV and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and leveraging existing immunological studies of SARS-CoV. By screening the experimentally-determined SARS-CoV-derived B cell and T cell epitopes in the immunogenic structural proteins of SARS-CoV, we identified a set of B cell and T cell epitopes derived from the spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins that map identically to 2019-nCoV proteins. As no mutation has been observed in these identified epitopes among the available 2019-nCoV sequences (as of 29 January 2020), immune targeting of these epitopes may potentially offer protection against 2019-nCoV. For the T cell epitopes, we performed a population coverage analysis of the associated MHC alleles and proposed a set of epitopes that is estimated to provide broad coverage globally, as well as in China. Our findings provide a screened set of epitopes that can help guide experimental efforts towards the development of vaccines against 2019-nCoV.