Lab staff publication included in authoritative IEDB Validated Epitope Database

Recently published article by the staff of the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology in Peerj journal “HLA-A*01:01 allele diminishing in COVID-19 patient population associated with non-structural epitope abundance in CD8+ T-cell repertoire” is included in the authoritative international database Immune Epitope Database And Analysis Research (IEDB).

 

In the study, scientists compared the characteristics of the genotypes of patients with COVID-19 of the first and third waves of the pandemic. For analysis, the next-generation sequencing (NGS) method was used to type the HLA genes. It can be used to determine which gene variants (alleles) of all possible ones a particular person has. The researchers then compared how often a particular allele occurs in different groups of patients.

 

It was found that the frequency of carriers of the HLA-A*01:01 allele was halved among patients in the third wave compared to the first. Other HLA-I gene variants were equally frequent in both groups.

 

HLA-A*01:01 mainly binds to molecules of the SARS-CoV-2 virus encoded in a region of its genome called ORF1ab. This region is considered conserved, that is, it is less prone to mutation compared to other regions of the virus genome. Presumably, the immunity of HLA-A*01:01 carriers has learned to detect COVID-19 regardless of infection mutations.

 

The database included the results of the immunogenicity analysis of 15 peptides.