Immune Profile of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern

The spread of the current Sars-Cov-2 pandemics leads to the development of mutationsthat are constantly monitored because they could affect theefficacy of vaccines. Threerecently identified mutated strains, known as variants of concern, are rapidly spreadingworldwide. Here, we study possible effects of these mutations on the immune responseto Sars-Cov-2 infection using NetTepi a computational method based on artificial neuralnetworks that considers binding and stability of peptides obtained by proteasomedegradation for widely represented HLA class I alleles present in human populationsas well as the T-cell propensity of viral peptides that measures their immune response.Our results show variations in the number of potential highly ranked peptides rangingbetween 0 and 20% depending on the specific HLA allele. The results can be useful todesign more specific vaccines.