in silico design of a multivalent epitope vaccine against sars-cov-2 for iranian populations

Background: because of high genetic variation in human leukocyte antigen (hla)alleles, epitope-based vaccines do not show equal efficacy in different human populations.therefore, we proposed a multi-epitope vaccine against sars-cov-2 (severe acuterespiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) for iranian populations.materials and methods: for this purpose, the proteins without allergenicity and highantigenicity, as well as conservancy levels from sars-cov-2, were chosen for computationalepitope mapping. the t-cell epitope mapping process was performed based on the mostfrequent human leukocyte antigen (hla) alleles in iran. the b- and t-cell epitopes weredetermined based on their allergenicity, antigenicity, and hemolytic potential. then, theepitopes with acceptable features were subjected to the final construct. the screened epitopeswere structured in the final vaccine sequence. the secondary and tertiary structures of theproposed vaccine were predicted, and its affinity to hla-i, hla-ii, toll-like receptor (tlr)-3, and tlr-4 were evaluated by the molecular docking method. additionally, possibleimmune responses against the vaccine were predicted through immune simulation.results: the final vaccine construct includes six linear b-cell epitopes, eight hla-i restrictedepitopes, and six hla-ii restricted epitopes. the evaluations confirmed that the proposedvaccine is a 60.3 kda stable, water-soluble, and high antigenic protein with high affinity to theselected target molecules and could elicit both humoral and cellular responses.conclusion: altogether, the study results suggest that the planned vaccine can be anadequate anti-covid-19 vaccine candidate for the iranian population.