The proposed designs use peptide chirality for different purposes. An L-amino-acid peptide containing a B-cell epitope could be attached to a carrier to elicit antibodies for diagnostic or vaccine applications. Its limitations include susceptibility to proteolysis and the possibility that a linear peptide will poorly reproduce discontinuous antigenic determinants. A D-amino-acid peptide is instead proposed as an antagonist of viral entry, with a longer half-life while binding ACE2.

Santa Clara University

Google

The probability of peptides being able to help with therapeutics and vaccines are becoming more relevant in clinical genomics that involved patient DNA sequences. The homologies that match viral protein sequences and uses of automated probabilistic reasoning are becoming more relevant.
The Q-UEL system has helped develop a preliminary set of predictive 3D protein structures of the virus.

Theory about peptides as the base of potential therapeutic and vaccines

When designing synthetic peptides for diagnostics or vaccines, several sequence-level suggestions apply:
- Avoid extensive stretches of strongly nonpolar (hydrophobic) amino acids.
- Remember that some epitopes serve a dual B-cell and T-cell epitope role.
- Avoid N-terminal asparagine (N) or glutamine (Q), and C-terminal proline (P) or glycine (G).

Potential concerns to address include:
- Lack of biostability (susceptibility to proteolysis).
- Whether the peptide can raise antibodies.
- Implanting immune-system memory in the case of vaccines.
- Specificity, i.e., avoiding unwanted cross-reactions with other proteins whose epitopes are similar to the target protein of interest.

Suggestions and concerns for synthetic peptides

- Has only be used in the veterinary environment but there is hope that it could be useful for humans
- Concern that the concentrations required for the synthetic peptide to work can cause issues with effects on blood pressure. Aerosol could be useful instead. 
- Using the combination of bioinformatics, human researchers, Q-UEL tools, that there will be rapid access to fighting against viruses and other pathogens

Future therapeutics for synthetic peptides

Predicting the likely conformations of amino acid residues—such as h, e, and coils or loops (c)—provides valuable structural insights for peptide designers. Specifically, residues predicted to form coils or loops often serve as a strong foundation for selecting peptides in the design of diagnostics and vaccines. This utility holds true regardless of the prediction's exact accuracy or other overlapping factors like water-liking character, exposure, or intrinsic immunogenicity.

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