Molecular Mimicry with Nsp11 Protein of SARS-CoV-2 in Individuals with HLA-B*15: 01 Allele

Objective: In our study, it was aimed to investigate the presence of peptides of the 13 amino acids-long non-structural protein 11 (Nsp11) of SARS-CoV-2 that may associated with the higher risk of autoimmune reactions in individuals with certain HLA serotypes. Materials and Methods: For this purpose, the binding affinities of Nsp11-derived peptides to 12 major histocompatibility complex (MHC) supertype representative human leukocyte antigen (FILA) alleles were predicted by NetMHCcons and NetCTLpan. Strongly binding or predicted epitope peptides were sought in human proteome by blastp. Whether the sequence containing the overlapping peptide had a strong binding affinity to the same HLA allele as the Nsp11 peptide was also checked. Results: One of the Nsp11-derived peptides was predicted to be strongly bound to the HLA-B*15:01 allele and the other to be the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitope that binds to the HLA-A*01:01 allele. Alignment result with inununoglobulin heavy chain junction region (MOP92462.1) appeared on top within the blastp search results for peptides. A peptide of the sequence containing the overlapping peptide was predicted to be the CTL epitope that binds to the BLA-B*15:01 allele. Conclusion: The results indicate that individuals with the HLA-B*15:01 allele may have a risk of autoimmune reactions from SARS-CoV-2 infection.