Prediction of b-cell epitopes from the nucleocapsid protein of sars-cov2 combining sequence based and molecular docking approaches

In December 2019, an outbreak of novel beta-coronavirus started in Wuhan, China, spread globally as COVID19 pandemic is still underway. The nSARS-CoV2 primarily targets the respiratory tract and results in severe acute respiratory distress (SARD), leading to respiratory tract collapse. The virus internalizes primarily via ACEII receptor, and many tissues reported a significant level of expression of ACEII receptor including lungs, hearts, kidney and gastrointestinal tract. The clinical manifestations of COVID19 are diverse, but growing evidence suggests that gut dysbiosis is one of them and poses a threat to native immunity. The viral Nucleocapsid protein could be an ideal target for therapeutic and vaccine development. In the present study a system biology approach was used to figure out a close affinity between B cell epitope and N protein of nSARS-CoV2.