Apropos of Universal Epitope Discovery for COVID-19 Vaccines: A Framework for Targeted Phage Display-Based Delivery and Integration of New Evaluation Tools.

Abstract

Targeted bacteriophage (phage) particles are potentially attractive yet inexpensive platforms for immunization. Herein, we describe targeted phage capsid display of an immunogenically relevant epitope of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein that is empirically conserved, likely due to the high mutational cost among all variants identified to date. This observation may herald an approach to developing vaccine candidates for broad-spectrum, towards universal, protection against multiple emergent variants of coronavirus that cause COVID-19.

• Authors: Christopher Markosian, Daniela I Staquicini, Prashant Dogra, Esteban Dodero-Rojas, Fenny H F Tang, Tracey L Smith, Vinícius G Contessoto, Steven K Libutti, Zhihui Wang, Vittorio Cristini, Paul C Whitford, Stephen K Burley, José N Onuchic, Renata Pasqualini, Wadih Arap
• Journal: bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (bioRxiv) (Aug 30 2021) United States
• PMID: 34676381 (Publication Type: Preprint)