Background information
SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), also known as novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV, causes fever, severe respiratory illness and can lead to life threatening pneumonia. The first cases of this disease, termed COVID-19 for coronavirus disease 2019, have been detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. SARS-CoV-2 Prot_S stands for the surface glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2, the "spike protein".
This protein is responsible for the recognition and binding of the coronavirus to the host cell. Once SARS-CoV-2 has bound to the ACE2 receptor of the host cell, fusion of viral envelope and host cell membrane starts, which enables the viral genome to enter the host cell. Thus, the spike protein is crucial for the infection of cells with coronaviruses and has been used as a target for vaccine development.
The spike protein consists of two functional domains: The S1 domain contains the receptor binding domain to the ACE2 receptor and the S2 subunit mediates membrane fusion. Cleavage at the S1/S2 boundary (aa-residues 685 and 686) via cellular proteases is crucial to prime the protein for the entry to the host cell. The cleavage site distinguishes SARS-CoV-2 from SARS-CoV spike protein sequence, and is thought to be an important feature not only for its zoonotic potential, but also for increased SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility.
The PepTivator SARS-CoV-2 Prot_S Complete covers the whole protein coding sequence of the surface or spike glycoprotein ("S") without the first four amino acids of the signal peptide. In contrast, PepTivator SARS-CoV-2 Prot_S covers selected immunodominant sequence domains of the spike protein (aa 304–338, 421–475, 492–519, 683–707, 741–770, 785–802, and 885–1273), Prot_S1 the complete N-terminal S1 domain (aa 1–692) and Prot_S
+ parts of the C-terminal S2 domain (aa 689–895).
Applications
PepTivator
® SARS-CoV-2 Prot_S Complete – research grade has been specifically developed for in vitro stimulation of SARS-CoV-2– specific T cells. Peptides of 15 amino acids in length and 11 amino acids overlap represent an optimized solution for stimulating both CD4
+ and CD8
+ T cells in various applications, including:
- Detection and analysis of SARS-CoV-2–specific CD4+ and CD8+ effector/memory T cells in PBMCs by MACS® Cytokine Secretion Assays, intracellular cytokine staining, or other technologies
- Isolation of viable SARS-CoV-2–specific CD4+ T cells with the CD154 MicroBead Kit, or of viable CD4+ and CD8+ T cells using MACS Cytokine Secretion Assay – Cell Enrichment and Detection Kits. Subsequently, cells can be expanded for generation of T cell lines
- Generation of SARS-CoV-2–specific CD4+ and CD8+ effector/ memory T cells from naive T cell populations
- Pulsing of antigen-presenting cells, e.g. for research on dendritic cell vaccination
More information regarding the work with antigen-specific T cells can be found in the T cell application section.
