Identification of two antigenic epitopes on SARS-CoV spike protein

The spike (S) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a major virion structural protein. It plays an important role in interaction with receptor and inducing neutralizing antibodies. In the study, six tentative antigenic epitopes (S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6) of the spike protein of SARS-CoV were predicted by bio-informatics analysis, and a multi-epitope chimeric gene of S1–S2–S3–S4–S5–S6 was synthesized and fused to downstream GST gene in pGEX-6p-1. The Western blotting demonstrated that SARS patient convalescent serum could recognize the recombinant fusion protein. A number of monoclonal antibodies were developed against the fusion protein. In further, the six predicted epitope genes were individually fused to GST of pGEX-6p-1 and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21, respectively. Among six fusion peptides, S5 reacted with monoclonal antibody D3C5 and S2 reacted with monoclonal antibody D3D1 against spike protein of SARS-CoV. The epitopes recognized by monoclonal antibodies D3C5 and D3D1 are linear, and correspond to 447–458 and 789–799 amino acids of spike protein of SARS-CoV, respectively. Identification of antigenic epitope of spike protein of SARS-CoV could provide the basis for the development of immunity-based prophylactic, therapeutic, and diagnostic techniques for the control of severe acute respiratory syndrome.