Mutational pressure promotes release of public CD8+ T cell epitopes by proteasome from SARS-CoV-2 RBD of Omicron and its current lineages

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

of Omicron B.1.1.529 strain results in a dramatic increase of proteasome-mediated release of two public HLA class I epitopes. Global population analysis of HLA class I haplotypes, specific to these peptides, demonstrated decreased mortality of human populations enriched in these haplotypes from COVID-19 after but not before December, 2021, when Omicron became dominant SARS-CoV-2 strain. Noteworthy, currently circulating BA.2.86 and JN.1 strains contain same amino acid substitutions at key proteasomal cleavage sites, thus preserving identified core epitopes.