Free idea by Ingrid L. M. Souza
Hello everyone,
I would like to share freely my idea for the production of a vaccine. I would produce the vaccine with the peptide PRRARS|V present in the spike 2 (S2) glycoprotein of the viral SARS-CoV-2 envelope. This sequence is a cleavage site for a human enzyme called furin (which is abundant in respiratory tract). When the cleavage of Spike2 (S2) by the furin occurs it becomes in the right conformation and active to bind to ACE2 (angiotensin receptor 2), which is present in human cell plasma membrane. When they bind (S2-ACE2) the virus is able to make its entry in the cell. If this cleavage sequence site PRRARS|V of viral S2 be blocked by an especific antibody, the cleavage does not occur and S2 does not bind to receptor ACE2, consequently the virus entry does not occur either. Besides, an specific antibody against this cleavage site of S2 can produce an directional immune response allowing macrophages to recognize antibodies, to do phagocytosis and then destruct the virus.
Also, if you do a blast and alignment of the peptide sequence PRRARS|V you see that it has similarity only with bacterias, parasites, fungi and virus, only pathogens and THIS SEQUENCE IS NOT PRESENT IN HUMAN PROTEINS, which means that antibodies against it would NOT injure our cells or damage cell’s metabolism. I already worked with furins and I don’t recommend treating patients with furin inhibitor drugs once furin are necessary to cleave other proteins in the cell to maintain an healthy metabolism! The ideia is attack specific peptides of the virus, create specific response and avoid damaging our cells proteins and metabolism! Please share freely this ideia to laboratories around the world engaged to create a vaccine with this peptide whether recombinant or not against SARS-CoV-2. You can check some information at: https://www.virology.ws/2020/02/13/furin-cleavage-site-in-the-sars-cov-2-coronavirus-glycoprotein/ You can check the BLAST sequence PRRARS|V similarities with other species but not humans in the following photos...
Full text attached.
I understand your thinking, but if the Furin cleavage site is a good target for the vaccine why has it not been used in other Viruses? SARS-CoV and MERS both have Furin cleavage sites with R at P1. If I’m not mistaken, attempts at vaccines for those viruses have failed.
Furin site is too short to present a good epitope. Making it a vaccine target may cause autoimmunity problems as well.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Biochemistry
- Enzymology
- Enzymes