IMMUNOINFORMATICS STUDY: EPITOPE-BASED VACCINE DESIGN OF SARS-COV-2 SPIKE GLYCOPROTEIN IN INDONESIA

• Main Author: Umitaibatin, Ramadhita
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/58048
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The COVID-19 outbreak has become a global problem since March 2020. This pandemic is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Although COVID-19 mortality rate in Indonesia is only 3,1%, this virus can be asymptotic resulting in a significant impact. Therefore, vaccine is needed to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This research aims to design epitope-based vaccine using spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 for Indonesia population, using immunoinformatics approach. In immunoinformatics, the method in designing the vaccine become crucial to get the best, most efficient result of the vaccine. The strategy in designing the vaccine begins with collecting SARS-CoV-2 and HLA protein sequences from Indonesia population, analyzing the relationships of collected spike glycoprotein, selecting sequences for epitope search, predicting the CD8+ Cytotoxic T-cell Lymphocyte (CTL) epitope, predicting the CD4+ Helper T Lymphocyte (HTL) epitope, predicting vaccine coverage for the Indonesian population, predicting B cell epitope, predicting antigenicity, allergenicity, toxicity in CTL and HTL, predicting IFN-? induce capability, vaccine construction engineering, validating vaccine structure, and analyzing interaction with TLR-3 by molecular docking. From this study, the best vaccine design was obtained from the Eijkman-1 vaccine model with the amino acid sequence MRIHYLLFALLFLFLVPVP GHGGIINTLQKYYCRVRGGRCAVLSCLPKEEQIGKCSTRGRKCCRRKKEAAAK SPRRARSVAKKWTAGAAAYYGPGPGGINITRFQTLLALHRGPGPGCTFEYVSG PGPFLMDLEGP. This vaccine structure is antigenic, non-allergenic, non-toxic, and able to induce IFN-? with a population reach of 78.6% in Indonesia. The linker used is able to support the stability of the vaccine structure, especially from GPGPG. The presence of adjuvant ?-defensin helps to add binding to TLR-3. This vaccine design can be analyzed and explored further to develop an epitope-based vaccine to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.