Screening and Identification of Linear B-Cell Epitopes and Entry-Blocking Peptide of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-Associated Coronavirus Using Synthetic Overlapping Peptide Library

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Abstract
A 10-mer overlapping peptide library has been synthesized for screening and identification of linear B-cell epitopes of severe acute respiratory syndrome associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which spanned the major structural proteins of SARS-CoV. One hundred and eleven candidate peptides were positive according to the result of PEPscan, which were assembled into 22 longer peptides. Five of these peptides showed high cross-immunoreactivities (∼66.7 to 90.5%) to SARS convalescent patients' sera from the severest epidemic regions of the China mainland. Most interestingly, S471-503, a peptide located at the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV, could specifically block the binding between the RBD and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, resulting in the inhibition of SARS-CoV entrance into host cells in vitro. The study demonstrated that S471-503 peptide was a potential immunoantigen for the development of peptide-based vaccine or a candidate for further drug evaluation against the SARS-CoV virus−cell fusion.