Optimal 8-mer and 9-mer SARS-CoV-2 epitope identification.

Based on the analogous SARS-CoV-2 peptide library sequences. Peptide sequences are named based on the protein they are contained within, followed by the number of the first amino acid residue of the peptide in the context of the full protein, to the last amino acid residue. potential optimal 8-mer or 9-mer CD8+ T cell epitopes were predicted. To determine the predicted binding affinities of the putative SARS-CoV-2 8-mer or 9-mer CD8+ T cell peptide epitopes to MHC class I, using the NetMHCpan 3.0 server, which uses artificial neural networks to predict relative binding affinities of peptides to any Kb or Db. As controls for strong Kb and Db binders respectively, Ova peptide and ZIKV E294 were input into the same algorithm. Optimal peptide epitopes are highlighted based on functional T cell data in combination with RMA-S stabilization assay data.