Fatemeh Yaghoobizadeh - Department of Biology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Khouzestan, Iran
Mohammad Roayaei Ardakani - Department of Biology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Khouzestan, Iran
Mohammad Mehdi Ranjbar - Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Karaj, Alborz, Iran.
Mohammad Khosravi - Department of Pathobiology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Khouzestan, Iran.
Hamid Galehdari - Department of Biology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Khouzestan, Iran

Background and Aim : As good candidates against the coronavirus infection, antibodies havebeen attracted high attentions. Accordingly, the current study was designed to harness the powerof bioinformatics study for the development of a potent recombinant antibody against the SARSCoV-۲ spike's RBD.Methods : The prediction of B-cell epitopes (BCEs) in the RBD was done based on the multimethodapproaches. Following the primary screening of antibodies according to their binding toBCEs, the comprehensive screening was performed based on the various criteria. Thereafter, usingthis hierarchal approach, one antibody was selected. A serine-glycine linker was used to link thevariable part of light and heavy chain. The construct was engineered by addition of pelB signalsequence to direct this single-chain fragment variable (scFv) antibody to the periplasmic space ofE. coli.Results : Among the various hit antibodies in our library, only one lead antibody met the variouscriteria and its good in silico reaction was confirmed with the verified/predicted BCEs. Moreover,the results did not show any interaction between paratope-mutable RBD residues.Conclusion : As one of limited research in the field of immunoinformatics, the current study couldbe considered as a platform for design the neutralizing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-۲ andother infectious agents, too.

SARS-CoV-۲; Bioinformatics; B-Cell epitope; recombinant scFv antibody; RBD;Virtual screening