Project description:Background: The newly identified coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV has posed a serious global health threat. According to the latest report (18-February-2020), it has infected more than 72,000 people globally and led to deaths of more than 1,016 people in China. Methods: The 2019 novel coronavirus proteome was aligned to a curated database of viral immunogenic peptides. The immunogenicity of detected peptides and their binding potential to HLA alleles was predicted by immunogenicity predictive models and NetMHCpan 4.0. Results: We report in silico identification of a comprehensive list of immunogenic peptides that can be used as potential targets for 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) vaccine development. First, we found 28 nCoV peptides identical to Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS CoV) that have previously been characterized immunogenic by T cell assays. Second, we identified 48 nCoV peptides having a high degree of similarity with immunogenic peptides deposited in The Immune Epitope Database (IEDB). Lastly, we conducted a de novo search of 2019-nCoV 9-mer peptides that i) bind to common HLA alleles in Chinese and European population and ii) have T Cell Receptor (TCR) recognition potential by positional weight matrices and a recently developed immunogenicity algorithm, iPred, and identified in total 63 peptides with a high immunogenicity potential. Conclusions: Given the limited time and resources to develop vaccine and treatments for 2019-nCoV, our work provides a shortlist of candidates for experimental validation and thus can accelerate development pipeline.
Project description:Rapid diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics are important interventions for the management of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. It is timely to systematically review the potential of these interventions, including those for Middle East respiratory syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV, to guide policymakers globally on their prioritization of resources for research and development. A systematic search was carried out in three major electronic databases (PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library) to identify published studies in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Supplementary strategies through Google Search and personal communications were used. A total of 27 studies fulfilled the criteria for review. Several laboratory protocols for confirmation of suspected 2019-nCoV cases using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) have been published. A commercial RT-PCR kit developed by the Beijing Genomic Institute is currently widely used in China and likely in Asia. However, serological assays as well as point-of-care testing kits have not been developed but are likely in the near future. Several vaccine candidates are in the pipeline. The likely earliest Phase 1 vaccine trial is a synthetic DNA-based candidate. A number of novel compounds as well as therapeutics licensed for other conditions appear to have in vitro efficacy against the 2019-nCoV. Some are being tested in clinical trials against MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, while others have been listed for clinical trials against 2019-nCoV. However, there are currently no effective specific antivirals or drug combinations supported by high-level evidence.
Project description:The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak has caused a large number of deaths with thousands of confirmed cases worldwide, especially in East Asia. This study took an immunoinformatics approach to identify significant cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) and B cell epitopes in the 2019-nCoV surface glycoprotein. Also, interactions between identified CTL epitopes and their corresponding major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I supertype representatives prevalent in China were studied by molecular dynamics simulations. We identified five CTL epitopes, three sequential B cell epitopes and five discontinuous B cell epitopes in the viral surface glycoprotein. Also, during simulations, the CTL epitopes were observed to be binding MHC class I peptide-binding grooves via multiple contacts, with continuous hydrogen bonds and salt bridge anchors, indicating their potential in generating immune responses. Some of these identified epitopes can be potential candidates for the development of 2019-nCoV vaccines.
Project description:The ongoing outbreak of the recently emerged 2019 novel coronavirus (nCoV), which has seriously threatened global health security, is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with high morbidity and mortality. Despite the burden of the disease worldwide, still, no licensed vaccine or any specific drug against 2019-nCoV is available. Data from several countries show that few repurposed drugs using existing antiviral drugs have not (so far) been satisfactory and more recently were proven to be even highly toxic. These findings underline an urgent need for preventative and therapeutic interventions designed to target specific aspects of 2019-nCoV. Again the major factor in this urgency is that the process of data acquisition by physical experiment is time-consuming and expensive to obtain. Scientific simulations and more in-depth data analysis permit to validate or refute drug repurposing opportunities predicted via target similarity profiling to speed up the development of a new more effective anti-2019-nCoV therapy especially where in vitro and/or in vivo data are not yet available. In addition, several research programs are being developed, aiming at the exploration of vaccines to prevent and treat the 2019-nCoV. Computational-based technology has given us the tools to explore and identify potentially effective drug and/or vaccine candidates which can effectively shorten the time and reduce the operating cost. The aim of the present review is to address the available information on molecular determinants in disease pathobiology modules and define the computational approaches employed in systematic drug repositioning and vaccine development settings for SARS-CoV-2.
Project description:OBJECTIVES:Following the public-health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 30 January 2020 and the recent outbreak caused by 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) [officially renamed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)] in China and 29 other countries, we aimed to summarise the clinical aspects of the novelBetacoronavirus disease (COVID-19) and its possible clinical presentations together with suggested therapeutic algorithms for patients who may require antimicrobial treatment. METHODS:The currently available literature was reviewed for microbiologically confirmed infections by 2019-nCoV or COVID-19 at the time of writing (13 February 2020). A literature search was performed using the PubMed database and Cochrane Library. Search terms included 'novel coronavirus' or '2019-nCoV' or 'COVID-19'. RESULTS:Published cases occurred mostly in males (age range, 8-92 years). Cardiovascular, digestive and endocrine system diseases were commonly reported, except previous chronic pulmonary diseases [e.g. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, bronchiectasis] that were surprisingly underreported. Fever was present in all of the case series available, flanked by cough, dyspnoea, myalgia and fatigue. Multiple bilateral lobular and subsegmental areas of consolidation or bilateral ground-glass opacities were the main reported radiological features of 2019-nCoV infection, at least in the early phases of the disease. CONCLUSION:The new 2019-nCoV epidemic is mainly associated with respiratory disease and few extrapulmonary signs. However, there is a low rate of associated pre-existing respiratory co-morbidities.
Project description:Using available official data we found 248 epidemics curves caused worldwide by the 2019-nCoV in the period December 2019-March 31st 2020. The analysis of this material allowed two main observations: 1) it is possible to describe the main geographical pathway of the diffusion of the virus in different directions. This strongly suggests a unique point of origin of the pandemics in Wuhan, China, from where it spread in many different directions. 2) of the 74 epidemics which were characterized by at least 1000 cases, 65 (90%) were located in the geographic region of the world delimitated by 52-30 degrees latitude North. Viceversa 110 (60%) of the 176 epidemics with less than 1000 cases were located outside the cited geographical world region. These results suggest considerations on the pandemic characteristics of 2019-nCoV.
Project description:There is a rising global concern for the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Full genomic sequences have been released by the worldwide scientific community in the last few weeks to understand the evolutionary origin and molecular characteristics of this virus. Taking advantage of all the genomic information currently available, we constructed a phylogenetic tree including also representatives of other coronaviridae, such as Bat coronavirus (BCoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome. We confirm high sequence similarity (>99%) between all sequenced 2019-nCoVs genomes available, with the closest BCoV sequence sharing 96.2% sequence identity, confirming the notion of a zoonotic origin of 2019-nCoV. Despite the low heterogeneity of the 2019-nCoV genomes, we could identify at least two hypervariable genomic hotspots, one of which is responsible for a Serine/Leucine variation in the viral ORF8-encoded protein. Finally, we perform a full proteomic comparison with other coronaviridae, identifying key aminoacidic differences to be considered for antiviral strategies deriving from previous anti-coronavirus approaches.
Project description:The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) spike protein is a smart molecular machine that instigates the entry of coronavirus to the host cell causing the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, a symmetry-information-loaded structure-based Hamiltonian is developed using recent Cryo-EM structural data to explore the complete conformational energy landscape of the full-length prefusion spike protein. The study finds the 2019-nCoV prefusion spike to adopt a unique strategy by undertaking a dynamic conformational asymmetry that results in two prevalent asymmetric structures of spike where one or two spike heads rotate up to provide better exposure to the host-cell receptor. A few unique interchain interactions are identified at the interface of closely associated N-terminal domain (NTD) and receptor binding domain (RBD) playing a crucial role in the thermodynamic stabilization of the up conformation of the RBD in the case of the 2019-nCoV spike. The interaction-level information decoded in this study may provide deep insight into developing effective therapeutic targets.
Project description:Wuhan coronavirus, called 2019-nCoV, is a newly emerged virus that infected more than 9692 people and leads to more than 213 fatalities by January 30, 2020. Currently, there is no effective treatment for this epidemic. However, the viral protease of a coronavirus is well-known to be essential for its replication and thus is an effective drug target. Fortunately, the sequence identity of the 2019-nCoV protease and that of severe-acute respiratory syndrome virus (SARS-CoV) is as high as 96.1%. We show that the protease inhibitor binding sites of 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV are almost identical, which means all potential anti-SARS-CoV chemotherapies are also potential 2019-nCoV drugs. Here, we report a family of potential 2019-nCoV drugs generated by a machine intelligence-based generative network complex (GNC). The potential effectiveness of treating 2019-nCoV by using some existing HIV drugs is also analyzed.