REVIEW: Will Peptides Help to Stop COVID-19?

---

Viktoriya G. Krut’¹, Sergei A. Chuvpilo¹, Irina V. Astrakhantseva¹, Liubov I. Kozlovskaya^2,3, Grigory A. Efimov⁴, Andrei A. Kruglov^5,6,7, Marina S. Drutskaya^1,8, and Sergei A. Nedospasov^1,5,6,8,a*

¹Sirius University of Science and Technology, 354340 Federal Territory Sirius, Krasnodar Krai, Russia

²Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immunobiological Products, Russian Academy of Sciences, 108819 Moscow, Russia

³Institute of Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, Sechenov Moscow State Medical University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

⁴National Medical Research Center of Hematology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 125167 Moscow, Russia

⁵Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia

⁶Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia

⁷German Rheumatism Research Center (DRFZ), Leibniz Institute, 10117 Berlin, Germany

⁸Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received December 31, 2021; Revised April 24, 2022; Accepted May 11, 2022

---

Peptides are widely used for the diagnostics, prevention, and therapy of certain human diseases. How useful can they be for the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus? In this review, we discuss the possibility of using synthetic and recombinant peptides and polypeptides for prevention of COVID-19 via blocking the interaction between the virus and its main receptor ACE2, as well as components of antiviral vaccines, in particular, against new emerging virus variants.

---

KEY WORDS: SARS-CoV-2, ACE2, vaccine, T-cell epitopes

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297922070021

---