scholarly journals The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein as a Drug and Vaccine Target: Structural Insights into Its Complexes with ACE2 and Antibodies

Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 2343
Author(s):  
Anastassios C. Papageorgiou ◽  
Imran Mohsin

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, has so far resulted in more than 1.1 M deaths and 40 M cases worldwide with no confirmed remedy yet available. Since the first outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019, researchers across the globe have been in a race to develop therapies and vaccines against the disease. SARS-CoV-2, similar to other previously identified Coronaviridae family members, encodes several structural proteins, such as spike, envelope, membrane, and nucleocapsid, that are responsible for host penetration, binding, recycling, and pathogenesis. Structural biology has been a key player in understanding the viral infection mechanism and in developing intervention strategies against the new coronavirus. The spike glycoprotein has drawn considerable attention as a means to block viral entry owing to its interactions with the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which acts as a receptor. Here, we review the current knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 and its interactions with ACE2 and antibodies. Structural information of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein and its complexes with ACE2 and antibodies can provide key input for the development of therapies and vaccines against the new coronavirus.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Sadek ◽  
David Zaha ◽  
Mahmoud Salama Ahmed

Given the continuing heavy toll of the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of the Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) variants, the WHO declared both as variants of concern (VOC). There are valid concerns that the latest Omicron variant might have increased infectivity and pathogenicity. In addition, the sheer number of S protein mutations in the Omicron variant raise concerns of potential immune evasion and resistance to therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies. However, structural insights that underpin the potential increased pathogenicity are unknown. Here we adopted an artificial intelligence (AI)-based approach to predict the structural changes induced by mutations of the Delta and Omicron variants in the spike (S) protein using Alphafold. This was followed by docking the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) with the predicted S proteins for Wuhan-Hu-1, Delta, and Omicron variants. Our in-silico structural analysis indicates that S protein for Omicron variant has a higher binding affinity to ACE-2 receptor, compared to Wuhan-Hu-1 and Delta variants. In addition, the recognition sites of the receptor binding domains for Delta and Omicron variants showed lower electronegativity compared to Wuhan-Hu-1. Importantly, further molecular insights revealed significant changes induced at fusion protein (FP) site, which may mediate enhanced viral entry. These results represent the first computational analysis of structural changes associated with Omicron variant using Alphafold, Collectively, our results highlight potential structural basis for enhanced pathogenicity of the Omicron variant, however further validation using X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM are warranted.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sai Priya Anand ◽  
Yaozong Chen ◽  
Jérémie Prévost ◽  
Romain Gasser ◽  
Guillaume Beaudoin-Bussières ◽  
...  

AbstractA novel severe acute respiratory (SARS)-like coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the current global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, infecting millions of people and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. The viral entry of SARS-CoV-2 depends on an interaction between the receptor binding domain of its trimeric Spike glycoprotein and the human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. A better understanding of the Spike/ACE2 interaction is still required to design anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics. Here, we investigated the degree of cooperativity of ACE2 within both the SARS-CoV-2 and the closely related SARS-CoV-1 membrane-bound S glycoproteins. We show that there exist differential inter-protomer conformational transitions between both Spike trimers. Interestingly, the SARS-CoV-2 spike exhibits a positive cooperativity for monomeric soluble ACE2 binding when compared to the SARS-CoV-1 spike, which might have more structural restrains. Our findings can be of importance in the development of therapeutics that block the Spike/ACE2 interaction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P.H. Alexander ◽  
Jonathan K. Ball ◽  
Theocharis Tsoleridis

CoronavirusesCoronaviruses are large, often spherical, enveloped, single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses, ranging in size from 80-220 nm. Of the four structural proteins encoded in the viral genome, the RNA winds around the highly basic nucleocapsid (N) protein. The three other structural proteins, envelope (E), membrane (M) and spike (S), are transmembrane proteins. The E protein is a small (9-12 kDa) single transmembrane domain protein, which enables virus assembly with the M protein, a larger (23-35 kDa) 3TM protein. Coronaviruses are named for the crown-shaped appearance of the virus due to the large (120+ kDa) S spike 1TM glycoprotein, which forms extended homotrimers. The spike protein binds to the animal host cell by interacting with specific anchoring proteins, typically proteinases, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 or aminopeptidase N. This binding facilitates viral entry into the cell and the release of the genome. Aside from the four structural proteins, the remainder of the genome encodes accessory or non-structural proteins and includes proteinases to cleave the two encoded polyproteins. The remainder of the genome encodes elements for viral replication, assembly and release, as well as proteins which manipulate the host's innate immune system.


Author(s):  
Bipin Singh

: The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 or 2019-nCoV) and its worldwide spread is posing one of the major threats to human health and the world economy. It has been suggested that SARS-CoV-2 is similar to SARSCoV based on the comparison of the genome sequence. Despite the genomic similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and SARSCoV, the spike glycoprotein and receptor binding domain in SARS-CoV-2 shows the considerable difference compared to SARS-CoV, due to the presence of several point mutations. The analysis of receptor binding domain (RBD) from recently published 3D structures of spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 (Yan, R., et al. (2020); Wrapp, D., et al. (2020); Walls, A. C., et al. (2020)) highlights the contribution of a few key point mutations in RBD of spike glycoprotein and molecular basis of its efficient binding with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 953
Author(s):  
Chuan Xu ◽  
Annie Wang ◽  
Ke Geng ◽  
William Honnen ◽  
Xuening Wang ◽  
...  

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), enters cells through attachment to the human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hACE2) via the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in the surface/spike (S) protein. Several pseudotyped viruses expressing SARS-CoV-2 S proteins are available, but many of these can only infect hACE2-overexpressing cell lines. Here, we report the use of a simple, two-plasmid, pseudotyped virus system comprising a SARS-CoV-2 spike-expressing plasmid and an HIV vector with or without vpr to investigate the SARS-CoV-2 entry event in various cell lines. When an HIV vector without vpr was used, pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 viruses produced in the presence of fetal bovine serum (FBS) were able to infect only engineered hACE2-overexpressing cell lines, whereas viruses produced under serum-free conditions were able to infect a broader range of cells, including cells without hACE2 overexpression. When an HIV vector containing vpr was used, pseudotyped viruses were able to infect a broad spectrum of cell types regardless of whether viruses were produced in the presence or absence of FBS. Infection sensitivities of various cell types did not correlate with mRNA abundance of hACE2, TMPRSS2, or TMPRSS4. Pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 viruses and replication-competent SARS-CoV-2 virus were equally sensitive to neutralization by an anti-spike RBD antibody in cells with high abundance of hACE2. However, the anti-spike RBD antibody did not block pseudotyped viral entry into cell lines with low abundance of hACE2. We further found that CD147 was involved in viral entry in A549 cells with low abundance of hACE2. Thus, our assay is useful for drug and antibody screening as well as for investigating cellular receptors, including hACE2, CD147, and tyrosine-protein kinase receptor UFO (AXL), for the SARS-CoV-2 entry event in various cell lines.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 784
Author(s):  
Solène Lerolle ◽  
Natalia Freitas ◽  
François-Loïc Cosset ◽  
Vincent Legros

The Bunyavirales order comprises more than 500 viruses (generally defined as bunyaviruses) classified into 12 families. Some of these are highly pathogenic viruses infecting different hosts, including humans, mammals, reptiles, arthropods, birds, and/or plants. Host cell sensing of infection activates the innate immune system that aims at inhibiting viral replication and propagation. Upon recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) by cellular pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), numerous signaling cascades are activated, leading to the production of interferons (IFNs). IFNs act in an autocrine and paracrine manner to establish an antiviral state by inducing the expression of hundreds of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs). Some of these ISGs are known to restrict bunyavirus infection. Along with other constitutively expressed host cellular factors with antiviral activity, these proteins (hereafter referred to as “restriction factors”) target different steps of the viral cycle, including viral entry, genome transcription and replication, and virion egress. In reaction to this, bunyaviruses have developed strategies to circumvent this antiviral response, by avoiding cellular recognition of PAMPs, inhibiting IFN production or interfering with the IFN-mediated response. Herein, we review the current knowledge on host cellular factors that were shown to restrict infections by bunyaviruses. Moreover, we focus on the strategies developed by bunyaviruses in order to escape the antiviral state developed by the infected cells.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Wei Zhang ◽  
Meng Bo Wang ◽  
Shuai Cheng Li

AbstractTopologically associating domains (TADs) are the organizational units of chromosome structures. TADs can contain TADs, thus forming a hierarchy. TAD hierarchies can be inferred from Hi-C data through coding trees. However, the current method for computing coding trees is not optimal. In this paper, we propose optimal algorithms for this computation. In comparison with seven state-of-art methods using two public datasets, from GM12878 and IMR90 cells, SuperTAD shows a significant enrichment of structural proteins around detected boundaries and histone modifications within TADs and displays a high consistency between various resolutions of identical Hi-C matrices.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107385842098410
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ali Haidar ◽  
Hussam Jourdi ◽  
Zeinab Haj Hassan ◽  
Ohanes Ashekyan ◽  
Manal Fardoun ◽  
...  

SARS-CoV-2 infects cells through angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a ubiquitous receptor that interacts with the virus’ surface S glycoprotein. Recent reports show that the virus affects the central nervous system (CNS) with symptoms and complications that include dizziness, altered consciousness, encephalitis, and even stroke. These can immerge as indirect immune effects due to increased cytokine production or via direct viral entry into brain tissue. The latter is possible through neuronal access via the olfactory bulb, hematogenous access through immune cells or directly across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and through the brain’s circumventricular organs characterized by their extensive and highly permeable capillaries. Last, the COVID-19 pandemic increases stress, depression, and anxiety within infected individuals, those in isolation, and high-risk populations like children, the elderly, and health workers. This review surveys the recent updates of CNS manifestations post SARS-CoV-2 infection along with possible mechanisms that lead to them.


2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (11) ◽  
pp. 2287-2292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Kruse ◽  
Aashish Manglik ◽  
Brian K. Kobilka ◽  
William I. Weis

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a large class of integral membrane proteins involved in regulating virtually every aspect of human physiology. Despite their profound importance in human health and disease, structural information regarding GPCRs has been extremely limited until recently. With the advent of a variety of new biochemical and crystallographic techniques, the structural biology of GPCRs has advanced rapidly, offering key molecular insights into GPCR activation and signal transduction. To date, almost all GPCR structures have been solved using molecular-replacement techniques. Here, the unique aspects of molecular replacement as applied to individual GPCRs and to signaling complexes of these important proteins are discussed.


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