Broadly neutralizing antibodies that bind to viral fusion might block the protein fusion process in order to prevent infection, but they are difficult to produce. As a substitute, antibody-derived peptides may be used for this purpose. Peptides are easy to develop both in terms of time and technology and are cost-effective, which makes them good candidates for drug design. In our project, we aim to design novel peptides with enhanced antibody properties by analyzing complexes between antibodies and SARS CoV-2 fusion protein structure.
In addition, these novel peptides may be used for creating a bispecific ligand(s) that binds to the spike protein of SARS CoV-2 by covalently linking two peptide ligands that recognize neighboring sites of the antigen.
