Zebrafish studies on the vaccine candidate to COVID-19, the Spike protein: Production of antibody and adverse reaction
Year: 2020
Type: preprint
Abstract: Summary Establishing new experimental animal models to assess the safety and immune response to the antigen used in the development of COVID-19 vaccine is an imperative issue. Based on the advantages of using zebrafish as a model in research, herein we suggest doing this to test the safety of the putative vaccine candidates and to study immune response against the virus. We produced a recombinant N-terminal fraction of the Spike SARS-CoV-2 protein and injected it into adult female zebrafish. The specimens generated humoral immunity and passed the antibodies to the eggs. However, they presented adverse reactions and inflammatory responses similar to severe cases of human COVID-19. The analysis of the structure and function of zebrafish and human Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, the main human receptor for virus infection, presented remarkable sequence similarities. Moreover, bioinformatic analysis predicted protein-protein interaction of the Spike SARS-CoV-2 fragment and the Toll-like receptor pathway. It might help in the choice of future therapeutic pharmaceutical drugs to be studied. Based on the in vivo and in silico results presented here, we propose the zebrafish as a model for translational research into the safety of the vaccine and the immune response of the vertebrate organism to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Authors: Bianca H Ventura Fernandes, Natália Martins Feitosa, Ana Paula Barbosa, Camila Gasque Bomfim, Anali M. B. Garnique, Francisco I. F. Gomes, Rafael T. Nakajima, Marco A. A. Belo, Silas Fernandes Eto, Dayanne Carla Fernandes, Guilherme Malafaia, Wilson G. Manrique, Gabriel Conde, Roberta R. C. Rosales, Iris Todeschini, Ilo Rivero, Edgar Llontop, German G. Sgro, Gabriel Umaji Oka, Natalia F Bueno, Fausto K. Ferraris, Mariana T. Q. de Magalhaes, Renata J. Medeiros, Juliana M. M Gomes, Mara de Souza Junqueira, Katia Conceição, Letícia G. Pontes, Antonio Condino-Neto, Andrea C. Perez, Leonardo J. G. Barcellos, Jose Dias Correa junior, Erick G. Dorlass, Niels O. S Camara, Edison Luiz Durigon, Fernando Q. Cunha, Rafael H. Nóbrega, Glaucia M. Machado-Santelli, Chuck Farah, Flávio P Veras, Jorge Galindo-Villegas, Leticia Costa-Lotufo, Thiago M. Cunha, Roger Chammas, Cristiane R. Guzzo, Luciani R Carvalho, Ives Charlie-Silva
Institutions: Universidade de São Paulo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Universidade Brasil, Universidade Federal de Roraima, Instituto Butantan, Instituto Federal Goiano, Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Universidade de Passo Fundo, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Nord University
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1020065205, G2286822848, G295657101, G311168959, G356139876, G3572101131, Structure and function of bacterial secretion systems, G5121428398, Effects of marine pharmaceuticals in zebrafish and ZFL cell line - emphasis, G5898989225, G5960408532, G757101492, Design of different fragments of SARS-CoV-2 surface protein spike for the development of fast diagnostic test and vaccine, G7753071806, G7872602500, Understanding the c-di-GMP signaling networks and the Type II secretion system present into the human pathogen Leptospira interrogans Copenhageni
OpenAlex ID: W3093962849