Prediction and production of epitope of SARS-CoV

  Objective   To obtain the peptide of severe acute respiratory syndro me(SARS)-CoVcontained the neutralizing Bcell epitope.

  Methods   The amino acid sequence of majorst ructure protein on the outermembrane of SARS-CoVwas analyzed by blast with known pro tein.The coronvirus mouse hepatitis virus(MHV)contained a neutralizingepitope in the S2 region.The SARS-CoVcontained the same region with MHVin the S2 segment.The amino acid sequence of the neutralizingepitope region of SARS-CoVand MHVwas analy zed with the DNASTARsoftware.The gene of the peptide contain the selected region was expressed in E.coli.The expressed peptide was identified by Western-blotting.

  Results   Aconserved seg ment which named S2 seg ment of coronvirus was digoutin the C-terminal of the spike protein of SARS-CoV.The SARS-Co Vmay contained a neutralizingepitope in the S2 region.The gene contained the selected region was expressed in E.coli.The expressed peptide could be reco gnized by the human anti-SARS-CoVantibody collected from the convalescence patients infected SARS.

  Conclusion   The expressed peptide may be a selected vaccine forprevention of SARS.