HLA-A*02 affinity to SARS-CoV-2 and susceptibility to COVID-19

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was declared by the World Health Organization as a global public health urgency. Considering the crucial role of HLA molecules in emerging infections, the interference of different HLA alleles on susceptibility to COVID-19 has been questioned in the scientific academy. Intending to elucidate the target ligand interactions, this present work selected the genotypes HLA-A*02, HLA-B*15, HLA-B*35 and HLA-B*44, as the most frequent in the Bahian population and the viral epitopes YLQPRTFLL, QYIKWPWYI, LTDEMIAQY, NYNYLYRLF, FIAGLIAIV, the most immunogenics of the spike glycoprotein peak. For protein selection, modeling and molecular docking was used the Allele Frequency Net Database (AFND), Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB), the HADDOCK online server and the PEP-FOLD 3. Our findings suggest that HLA-A*02:01 is a risk genotype, since it showed lower energy affinity compared to HLA-B*15, HLA-B*35 and HLA-B*44. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10371971

Keywords

• HLA
• COVID-19
• Molecular Docking