Additionally, the updated HLA allelic frequencies provide a better representation of South America and may impact different immunogenetic studies.", In conclusion, the candidate epitopes presented provide valuable information for the development of epitope-based strategies against SARS-CoV-2, such as peptide vaccines and diagnostic tests. Finally, we show that recent similar studies presenting candidate epitopes also predicted some of our candidates but discarded them in the selection process, resulting in candidates with suboptimal coverage for South America. These novel candidates have even better coverage scores for South America than those with experimental evidence. Additionally, we are presenting 13 HLA-I and 30 HLA-II novel candidate epitopes without experimental evidence, including 16 class-II candidates in highly exposed conserved areas of the NTD and RBD regions of the Spike protein. We obtained 14 class-I and four class-II candidate epitopes with experimental evidence (reported in the Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource), having good coverage scores for South America. Class II predicted epitopes were also filtered based on their three-dimensional exposure. Then, the best predicted epitopes (class-I and -II) were selected based on their binding to South American alleles (Coverage Score). Using alleles with an updated frequency of at least ≥5% in any South American country, we predicted epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 proteins using NetMHCpan (I and II) and MHC flurry. As a result, we are presenting updated HLA allelic frequencies based on country, including 91 alleles that were previously thought to have frequencies either under 5% or of an unknown value. This allowed us to enrich the current scenario with more than 12.8 million data points. In this study, we have performed a literature review of datasets reporting HLA frequencies of South American populations, available in scientific literature and/or in the Allele Frequency Net Database. Despite its importance, current knowledge of HLA allele frequencies in South America is very limited. In these approaches, HLA allelic diversity plays a crucial role. Ongoing efforts to control the pandemic include the development of peptide-based vaccines and diagnostic tests. Additionally, the updated HLA allelic frequencies provide a better representation of South America and may impact different immunogenetic studies.Ībstract = "Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, is already responsible for more than 4.3 million confirmed cases and 295,000 deaths worldwide as of May 15, 2020. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, is already responsible for more than 4.3 million confirmed cases and 295,000 deaths worldwide as of May 15, 2020.
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