1
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Wang Q, Wang X, Ding J, Huang L, Wang Z. Structural insight of cell surface sugars in viral infection and human milk glycans as natural antiviral substance. Int J Biol Macromol 2024; 277:133867. [PMID: 39009265 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.133867] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2024] [Revised: 06/24/2024] [Accepted: 07/11/2024] [Indexed: 07/17/2024]
Abstract
Viral infections are caused by the adhesion of viruses to host cell receptors, including sialylated glycans, glycosaminoglycans, and human blood group antigens (HBGAs). Atomic-level structural information on the interactions between viral particles or proteins with glycans can be determined to provide precise targets for designing antiviral drugs. Milk glycans, existing as free oligosaccharides or glycoconjugates, have attracted increasing attention; milk glycans protect infants against infectious diseases, particularly poorly manageable viral infections. Furthermore, several glycans containing structurally distinct sialic acid/fucose/sulfate modifications in human milk acting as a "receptor decoy" and serving as the natural antiviral library, could interrupt virus-receptor interaction in the first line of defense for viral infection. This review highlights the basis of virus-glycan interactions, presents specific glycan receptor binding by gastroenterovirus viruses, including norovirus, enteroviruses, and the breakthroughs in the studies on the antiviral properties of human milk glycans, and also elucidates the role of glycans in respiratory viruses infection. In addition, recent advances in methods for performing virus/viral protein-glycan interactions were reported. Finally, we discuss the prospects and challenges of the studies on the clinical application of human milk glycan for viral interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qingling Wang
- Shaanxi Natural Carbohydrate Resource Engineering Research Center, College of Food Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China
| | - Xiaoqin Wang
- Shaanxi Natural Carbohydrate Resource Engineering Research Center, College of Food Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China
| | - Jieqiong Ding
- Shaanxi Natural Carbohydrate Resource Engineering Research Center, College of Food Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China
| | - Linjuan Huang
- Shaanxi Natural Carbohydrate Resource Engineering Research Center, College of Food Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
| | - Zhongfu Wang
- Shaanxi Natural Carbohydrate Resource Engineering Research Center, College of Food Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
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2
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Oróstica KY, Mohr SB, Dehning J, Bauer S, Medina-Ortiz D, Iftekhar EN, Mujica K, Covarrubias PC, Ulloa S, Castillo AE, Daza-Sánchez A, Verdugo RA, Fernández J, Olivera-Nappa Á, Priesemann V, Contreras S. Early mutational signatures and transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 Gamma and Lambda variants in Chile. Sci Rep 2024; 14:16000. [PMID: 38987406 PMCID: PMC11237036 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-66885-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Genomic surveillance (GS) programmes were crucial in identifying and quantifying the mutating patterns of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this work, we develop a Bayesian framework to quantify the relative transmissibility of different variants tailored for regions with limited GS. We use it to study the relative transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Chile. Among the 3443 SARS-CoV-2 genomes collected between January and June 2021, where sampling was designed to be representative, the Gamma (P.1), Lambda (C.37), Alpha (B.1.1.7), B.1.1.348, and B.1.1 lineages were predominant. We found that Lambda and Gamma variants' reproduction numbers were 5% (95% CI: [1%, 14%]) and 16% (95% CI: [11%, 21%]) larger than Alpha's, respectively. Besides, we observed a systematic mutation enrichment in the Spike gene for all circulating variants, which strongly correlated with variants' transmissibility during the studied period (r = 0.93, p-value = 0.025). We also characterised the mutational signatures of local samples and their evolution over time and with the progress of vaccination, comparing them with those of samples collected in other regions worldwide. Altogether, our work provides a reliable method for quantifying variant transmissibility under subsampling and emphasises the importance of continuous genomic surveillance.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sebastian B Mohr
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany
- Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Jonas Dehning
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany
- Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Simon Bauer
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany
| | - David Medina-Ortiz
- Departamento de Ingeniería en Computación, Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile
| | - Emil N Iftekhar
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany
- Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Karen Mujica
- Sub Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Public Health of Chile (ISP), Santiago, Chile
| | - Paulo C Covarrubias
- Sub Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Public Health of Chile (ISP), Santiago, Chile
| | - Soledad Ulloa
- Sub Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Public Health of Chile (ISP), Santiago, Chile
| | - Andrés E Castillo
- Sub Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Public Health of Chile (ISP), Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Ricardo A Verdugo
- Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile
- Departamento de Oncología Básico-Clínica, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Jorge Fernández
- Sub Department of Molecular Genetics, Institute of Public Health of Chile (ISP), Santiago, Chile
| | - Álvaro Olivera-Nappa
- Centre for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Materials, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Viola Priesemann
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany
- Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Seba Contreras
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany.
- Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
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3
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Nguyen A, Zhao H, Myagmarsuren D, Srinivasan S, Wu D, Chen J, Piszczek G, Schuck P. Modulation of biophysical properties of nucleocapsid protein in the mutant spectrum of SARS-CoV-2. eLife 2024; 13:RP94836. [PMID: 38941236 PMCID: PMC11213569 DOI: 10.7554/elife.94836] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/30/2024] Open
Abstract
Genetic diversity is a hallmark of RNA viruses and the basis for their evolutionary success. Taking advantage of the uniquely large genomic database of SARS-CoV-2, we examine the impact of mutations across the spectrum of viable amino acid sequences on the biophysical phenotypes of the highly expressed and multifunctional nucleocapsid protein. We find variation in the physicochemical parameters of its extended intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) sufficient to allow local plasticity, but also observe functional constraints that similarly occur in related coronaviruses. In biophysical experiments with several N-protein species carrying mutations associated with major variants, we find that point mutations in the IDRs can have nonlocal impact and modulate thermodynamic stability, secondary structure, protein oligomeric state, particle formation, and liquid-liquid phase separation. In the Omicron variant, distant mutations in different IDRs have compensatory effects in shifting a delicate balance of interactions controlling protein assembly properties, and include the creation of a new protein-protein interaction interface in the N-terminal IDR through the defining P13L mutation. A picture emerges where genetic diversity is accompanied by significant variation in biophysical characteristics of functional N-protein species, in particular in the IDRs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ai Nguyen
- Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
| | - Huaying Zhao
- Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
| | - Dulguun Myagmarsuren
- Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
| | - Sanjana Srinivasan
- Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
| | - Di Wu
- Biophysics Core Facility, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
| | - Jiji Chen
- Advanced Imaging and Microscopy Resource, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
| | - Grzegorz Piszczek
- Biophysics Core Facility, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
| | - Peter Schuck
- Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, United States
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4
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Jachman-Kapułka J, Zińczuk A, Szymański W, Simon K, Rorat M. Complexity and Diversity of the Neurological Spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 over Three Waves of COVID-19. J Clin Med 2024; 13:3477. [PMID: 38930003 PMCID: PMC11204600 DOI: 10.3390/jcm13123477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2024] [Revised: 05/27/2024] [Accepted: 06/11/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Background/Objectives: SARS-CoV-2 continually mutates, with five identified variants. Many neurological manifestations were observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with differences between virus variants. The aim of this study is to assess the frequency and characteristics of neurological manifestations during COVID-19 in hospitalized patients over three waves in Poland with comparison and analysis correlation with the course of infection. Methods: This retrospective single-center study included 600 consecutive adults with confirmed COVID-19, hospitalized during 3 waves (pre-Delta, Delta and Omicron) in Poland. Demographic and clinical information and neurological manifestations were collected and compared across three periods. Results: The median age of the study group was 68, lower during the Delta wave. In the Omicron period, the disease severity at admission and inflammatory markers concentration were the lowest. Neurological manifestations were observed in 49%. The most common were altered mentation, headache, myalgia, mood disorder, ischemic stroke and encephalopathy. Smell and taste disturbances (STDs) were less frequent in the Omicron period. Neurological complications were predominant in the pre-Delta and Omicron periods. Ischemic stroke was observed more often in pre-Delta period. Altered mentation was related to higher severity at admission, worse lab test results, higher admission to ICU and mortality, while headache reduced mortality. Pre-existing dementia was related to higher mortality. Conclusions: Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 are frequent, with a lower rate of STDs in the Omicron period and more often cerebrovascular diseases in the pre-Delta period. Headache improves the course of COVID-19, while altered mentation, stroke and neurological comorbidities increase severity and mortality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justyna Jachman-Kapułka
- 6th Department of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, J. Gromkowski Specialist Regional Hospital, 51-149 Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Aleksander Zińczuk
- 1st Department of Infectious Diseases, J. Gromkowski Specialist Regional Hospital, 51-149 Wroclaw, Poland; (A.Z.); (W.S.); (K.S.)
| | - Wojciech Szymański
- 1st Department of Infectious Diseases, J. Gromkowski Specialist Regional Hospital, 51-149 Wroclaw, Poland; (A.Z.); (W.S.); (K.S.)
- Clinical Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-369 Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Krzysztof Simon
- 1st Department of Infectious Diseases, J. Gromkowski Specialist Regional Hospital, 51-149 Wroclaw, Poland; (A.Z.); (W.S.); (K.S.)
- Clinical Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-369 Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Marta Rorat
- Department of Social Sciences and Infectious Diseases, Medical Faculty, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland;
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5
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Ose NJ, Campitelli P, Modi T, Kazan IC, Kumar S, Ozkan SB. Some mechanistic underpinnings of molecular adaptations of SARS-COV-2 spike protein by integrating candidate adaptive polymorphisms with protein dynamics. eLife 2024; 12:RP92063. [PMID: 38713502 PMCID: PMC11076047 DOI: 10.7554/elife.92063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2024] Open
Abstract
We integrate evolutionary predictions based on the neutral theory of molecular evolution with protein dynamics to generate mechanistic insight into the molecular adaptations of the SARS-COV-2 spike (S) protein. With this approach, we first identified candidate adaptive polymorphisms (CAPs) of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein and assessed the impact of these CAPs through dynamics analysis. Not only have we found that CAPs frequently overlap with well-known functional sites, but also, using several different dynamics-based metrics, we reveal the critical allosteric interplay between SARS-CoV-2 CAPs and the S protein binding sites with the human ACE2 (hACE2) protein. CAPs interact far differently with the hACE2 binding site residues in the open conformation of the S protein compared to the closed form. In particular, the CAP sites control the dynamics of binding residues in the open state, suggesting an allosteric control of hACE2 binding. We also explored the characteristic mutations of different SARS-CoV-2 strains to find dynamic hallmarks and potential effects of future mutations. Our analyses reveal that Delta strain-specific variants have non-additive (i.e., epistatic) interactions with CAP sites, whereas the less pathogenic Omicron strains have mostly additive mutations. Finally, our dynamics-based analysis suggests that the novel mutations observed in the Omicron strain epistatically interact with the CAP sites to help escape antibody binding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas James Ose
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State UniversityTempeUnited States
| | - Paul Campitelli
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State UniversityTempeUnited States
| | - Tushar Modi
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State UniversityTempeUnited States
| | - I Can Kazan
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State UniversityTempeUnited States
| | - Sudhir Kumar
- Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine, Temple UniversityPhiladelphiaUnited States
- Department of Biology, Temple UniversityPhiladelphiaUnited States
- Center for Genomic Medicine Research, King Abdulaziz UniversityJeddahSaudi Arabia
| | - Sefika Banu Ozkan
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State UniversityTempeUnited States
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6
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Meijers M, Ruchnewitz D, Eberhardt J, Karmakar M, Łuksza M, Lässig M. Concepts and methods for predicting viral evolution. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.03.19.585703. [PMID: 38746108 PMCID: PMC11092427 DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.19.585703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2024]
Abstract
The seasonal human influenza virus undergoes rapid evolution, leading to significant changes in circulating viral strains from year to year. These changes are typically driven by adaptive mutations, particularly in the antigenic epitopes, the regions of the viral surface protein haemagglutinin targeted by human antibodies. Here we describe a consistent set of methods for data-driven predictive analysis of viral evolution. Our pipeline integrates four types of data: (1) sequence data of viral isolates collected on a worldwide scale, (2) epidemiological data on incidences, (3) antigenic characterization of circulating viruses, and (4) intrinsic viral phenotypes. From the combined analysis of these data, we obtain estimates of relative fitness for circulating strains and predictions of clade frequencies for periods of up to one year. Furthermore, we obtain comparative estimates of protection against future viral populations for candidate vaccine strains, providing a basis for pre-emptive vaccine strain selection. Continuously updated predictions obtained from the prediction pipeline for influenza and SARS-CoV-2 are available on the website previr.app .
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7
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Meijers M, Ruchnewitz D, Eberhardt J, Karmakar M, Łuksza M, Lässig M. Concepts and methods for predicting viral evolution. ARXIV 2024:arXiv:2403.12684v2. [PMID: 38745695 PMCID: PMC11092678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/16/2024]
Abstract
The seasonal human influenza virus undergoes rapid evolution, leading to significant changes in circulating viral strains from year to year. These changes are typically driven by adaptive mutations, particularly in the antigenic epitopes, the regions of the viral surface protein haemagglutinin targeted by human antibodies. Here we describe a consistent set of methods for data-driven predictive analysis of viral evolution. Our pipeline integrates four types of data: (1) sequence data of viral isolates collected on a worldwide scale, (2) epidemiological data on incidences, (3) antigenic characterization of circulating viruses, and (4) intrinsic viral phenotypes. From the combined analysis of these data, we obtain estimates of relative fitness for circulating strains and predictions of clade frequencies for periods of up to one year. Furthermore, we obtain comparative estimates of protection against future viral populations for candidate vaccine strains, providing a basis for pre-emptive vaccine strain selection. Continuously updated predictions obtained from the prediction pipeline for influenza and SARS-CoV-2 are available on the website previr.app.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthijs Meijers
- Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne, Zülpicherstr. 77, 50937, Köln, Germany
| | - Denis Ruchnewitz
- Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne, Zülpicherstr. 77, 50937, Köln, Germany
| | - Jan Eberhardt
- Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne, Zülpicherstr. 77, 50937, Köln, Germany
| | - Malancha Karmakar
- Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne, Zülpicherstr. 77, 50937, Köln, Germany
| | - Marta Łuksza
- Tisch Cancer Institute, Departments of Oncological Sciences and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Michael Lässig
- Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne, Zülpicherstr. 77, 50937, Köln, Germany
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8
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Sarkar A, Ghosh TA, Bandyopadhyay B, Maiti S, Panja AS. Prediction of Prospective Mutational Landscape of SARS-CoV-2 Spike ssRNA and Evolutionary Basis of Its Host Interaction. Mol Biotechnol 2024:10.1007/s12033-024-01146-1. [PMID: 38619800 DOI: 10.1007/s12033-024-01146-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2024] [Accepted: 03/14/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
Booster doses are crucial against severe COVID-19, as rapid virus mutations and variant emergence prolong the pandemic crisis. The virus's quick evolution, short generation-time, and adaptive changes impact virulence and evolvability, helping predictions about variant of concerns' (VOCs') landscapes. Here, in this study, we used a new computational algorithm, to predict the mutational pattern in SARS-CoV-2 ssRNA, proteomics, structural identification, mutation stability, and functional correlation, as well as immune escape mechanisms. Interestingly, the sequence diversity of SARS Coronavirus-2 has demonstrated a predominance of G- > A and C- > U substitutions. The best validation statistics are explored here in seven homologous models of the expected mutant SARS-CoV-2 spike ssRNA and employed for hACE2 and IgG interactions. The interactome profile of SARS-CoV-2 spike with hACE2 and IgG revealed a strong correlation between phylogeny and divergence time. The systematic adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 spike ssRNA influences infectivity and immune escape. Data suggest higher propensity of Adenine rich sequence promotes MHC system avoidance, preferred by A-rich codons. Phylogenetic data revealed the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 lineages' epidemiology. Our findings may unveil processes governing the genesis of immune-resistant variants, prompting a critical reassessment of the coronavirus mutation rate and exploration of hypotheses beyond mechanical aspects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aniket Sarkar
- Post Graduate Department of Biotechnology, Oriental Institute of Science and Technology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, 721102, India
| | - Trijit Arka Ghosh
- Department of Computer Application, Burdwan Institute of Management and Computer Science, The University of Burdwan, Dewandighi, Burdwan, West Bengal, 713102, India
| | - Bidyut Bandyopadhyay
- Post Graduate Department of Biotechnology, Oriental Institute of Science and Technology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, 721102, India
| | - Smarajit Maiti
- Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Haldia Institute of Health Sciences, ICARE Complex, Haldia, West Bengal, 721657, India
| | - Anindya Sundar Panja
- Post Graduate Department of Biotechnology, Molecular Informatics Laboratory, Oriental Institute of Science and Technology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, 721102, India.
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9
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Mohebbi F, Zelikovsky A, Mangul S, Chowell G, Skums P. Early detection of emerging viral variants through analysis of community structure of coordinated substitution networks. Nat Commun 2024; 15:2838. [PMID: 38565543 PMCID: PMC10987511 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47304-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2024] [Indexed: 04/04/2024] Open
Abstract
The emergence of viral variants with altered phenotypes is a public health challenge underscoring the need for advanced evolutionary forecasting methods. Given extensive epistatic interactions within viral genomes and known viral evolutionary history, efficient genomic surveillance necessitates early detection of emerging viral haplotypes rather than commonly targeted single mutations. Haplotype inference, however, is a significantly more challenging problem precluding the use of traditional approaches. Here, using SARS-CoV-2 evolutionary dynamics as a case study, we show that emerging haplotypes with altered transmissibility can be linked to dense communities in coordinated substitution networks, which become discernible significantly earlier than the haplotypes become prevalent. From these insights, we develop a computational framework for inference of viral variants and validate it by successful early detection of known SARS-CoV-2 strains. Our methodology offers greater scalability than phylogenetic lineage tracing and can be applied to any rapidly evolving pathogen with adequate genomic surveillance data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Mohebbi
- Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy, USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Alex Zelikovsky
- Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Serghei Mangul
- Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy, USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Gerardo Chowell
- School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Pavel Skums
- Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- School of Computing, College of Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
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10
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Rogozin IB, Saura A, Poliakov E, Bykova A, Roche-Lima A, Pavlov YI, Yurchenko V. Properties and Mechanisms of Deletions, Insertions, and Substitutions in the Evolutionary History of SARS-CoV-2. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:3696. [PMID: 38612505 PMCID: PMC11011937 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25073696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2024] [Revised: 03/22/2024] [Accepted: 03/23/2024] [Indexed: 04/14/2024] Open
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 has accumulated many mutations since its emergence in late 2019. Nucleotide substitutions leading to amino acid replacements constitute the primary material for natural selection. Insertions, deletions, and substitutions appear to be critical for coronavirus's macro- and microevolution. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of mutations in the mutational hotspots (positions, loci with recurrent mutations, and nucleotide context) is important for disentangling roles of mutagenesis and selection. In the SARS-CoV-2 genome, deletions and insertions are frequently associated with repetitive sequences, whereas C>U substitutions are often surrounded by nucleotides resembling the APOBEC mutable motifs. We describe various approaches to mutation spectra analyses, including the context features of RNAs that are likely to be involved in the generation of recurrent mutations. We also discuss the interplay between mutations and natural selection as a complex evolutionary trend. The substantial variability and complexity of pipelines for the reconstruction of mutations and the huge number of genomic sequences are major problems for the analyses of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome. As a solution, we advocate for the development of a centralized database of predicted mutations, which needs to be updated on a regular basis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Igor B. Rogozin
- Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic
| | - Andreu Saura
- Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic
| | - Eugenia Poliakov
- National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Anastassia Bykova
- Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic
| | - Abiel Roche-Lima
- Center for Collaborative Research in Health Disparities—RCMI Program, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan 00936, Puerto Rico
| | - Youri I. Pavlov
- Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
| | - Vyacheslav Yurchenko
- Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic
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11
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Ose NJ, Campitelli P, Modi T, Can Kazan I, Kumar S, Banu Ozkan S. Some mechanistic underpinnings of molecular adaptations of SARS-COV-2 spike protein by integrating candidate adaptive polymorphisms with protein dynamics. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.09.14.557827. [PMID: 37745560 PMCID: PMC10515954 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.14.557827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
We integrate evolutionary predictions based on the neutral theory of molecular evolution with protein dynamics to generate mechanistic insight into the molecular adaptations of the SARS-COV-2 Spike (S) protein. With this approach, we first identified Candidate Adaptive Polymorphisms (CAPs) of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and assessed the impact of these CAPs through dynamics analysis. Not only have we found that CAPs frequently overlap with well-known functional sites, but also, using several different dynamics-based metrics, we reveal the critical allosteric interplay between SARS-CoV-2 CAPs and the S protein binding sites with the human ACE2 (hACE2) protein. CAPs interact far differently with the hACE2 binding site residues in the open conformation of the S protein compared to the closed form. In particular, the CAP sites control the dynamics of binding residues in the open state, suggesting an allosteric control of hACE2 binding. We also explored the characteristic mutations of different SARS-CoV-2 strains to find dynamic hallmarks and potential effects of future mutations. Our analyses reveal that Delta strain-specific variants have non-additive (i.e., epistatic) interactions with CAP sites, whereas the less pathogenic Omicron strains have mostly additive mutations. Finally, our dynamics-based analysis suggests that the novel mutations observed in the Omicron strain epistatically interact with the CAP sites to help escape antibody binding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas J. Ose
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Paul Campitelli
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Tushar Modi
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - I. Can Kazan
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Sudhir Kumar
- Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- Center for Genomic Medicine Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| | - S. Banu Ozkan
- Department of Physics and Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
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12
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Rubio A, de Toro M, Pérez-Pulido AJ. The most exposed regions of SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins are subject to strong positive selection and gene overlap may locally modify this behavior. mSystems 2024; 9:e0071323. [PMID: 38095866 PMCID: PMC10804949 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00713-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 12/22/2023] Open
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pandemic that emerged in 2019 has been an unprecedented event in international science, as it has been possible to sequence millions of genomes, tracking their evolution very closely. This has enabled various types of secondary analyses of these genomes, including the measurement of their sequence selection pressure. In this work, we have been able to measure the selective pressure of all the described SARS-CoV-2 genes, even analyzed by sequence regions, and we show how this type of analysis allows us to separate the genes between those subject to positive selection (usually those that code for surface proteins or those exposed to the host immune system) and those subject to negative selection because they require greater conservation of their structure and function. We have also seen that when another gene with an overlapping reading frame appears within a gene sequence, the overlapping sequence between the two genes evolves under a stronger purifying selection than the average of the non-overlapping regions of the main gene. We propose this type of analysis as a useful tool for locating and analyzing all the genes of a viral genome when an adequate number of sequences are available.IMPORTANCEWe have analyzed the selection pressure of all severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 genes by means of the nonsynonymous (Ka) to synonymous (Ks) substitution rate. We found that protein-coding genes are exposed to strong positive selection, especially in the regions of interaction with other molecules (host receptor and genome of the virus itself). However, overlapping coding regions are more protected and show negative selection. This suggests that this measure could be used to study viral gene function as well as overlapping genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Rubio
- Faculty of Experimental Sciences, Genetics Area, Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD, UPO-CSIC-JA), University Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain
| | - Maria de Toro
- Genomics and Bioinformatics Core Facility, Center for Biomedical Research of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain
| | - Antonio J. Pérez-Pulido
- Faculty of Experimental Sciences, Genetics Area, Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD, UPO-CSIC-JA), University Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain
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13
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Levi R, Zerhouni EG, Altuvia S. Predicting the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants: An artificial intelligence enabled early detection. PNAS NEXUS 2024; 3:pgad424. [PMID: 38170049 PMCID: PMC10759796 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
During more than 3 years since its emergence, SARS-CoV-2 has shown great ability to mutate rapidly into diverse variants, some of which turned out to be very infectious and have spread throughout the world causing waves of infections. At this point, many countries have already experienced up to six waves of infections. Extensive academic work has focused on the development of models to predict the pandemic trajectory based on epidemiological data, but none has focused on predicting variant-specific spread. Moreover, important scientific literature analyzes the genetic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants and how it might functionally affect their infectivity. However, genetic attributes have not yet been incorporated into existing epidemiological modeling that aims to capture infection trajectory. Thus, this study leverages variant-specific genetic characteristics together with epidemiological information to systematically predict the future spread trajectory of newly detected variants. The study describes the analysis of 9.0 million SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences in 30 countries and identifies temporal characteristic patterns of SARS-CoV-2 variants that caused significant infection waves. Using this descriptive analysis, a machine-learning-enabled risk assessment model has been developed to predict, as early as 1 week after their first detection, which variants are likely to constitute the new wave of infections in the following 3 months. The model's out-of-sample area under the curve (AUC) is 86.3% for predictions after 1 week and 90.8% for predictions after 2 weeks. The methodology described in this paper could contribute more broadly to the development of improved predictive models for variants of other infectious viruses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Retsef Levi
- Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - El Ghali Zerhouni
- Operations Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Shoshy Altuvia
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, 9112102, Israel
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14
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Zeng W, Jia X, Chi X, Zhang X, Li E, Wu Y, Liu Y, Han J, Ni K, Ye X, Hu X, Ma H, Yu C, Chiu S, Jin T. An engineered bispecific nanobody in tetrameric secretory IgA format confers broad neutralization against SARS-CoV-1&2 and most variants. Int J Biol Macromol 2023; 253:126817. [PMID: 37690653 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 09/06/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2, a type of respiratory virus, has exerted a great impact on global health and economy over the past three years. Antibody-based therapy was initially successful but later failed due to the accumulation of mutations in the spike protein of the virus. Strategies that enable antibodies to resist virus escape are therefore of great significance. Here, we engineer a bispecific SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing nanobody in secretory Immunoglobulin A (SIgA) format, named S2-3-IgA2m2, which shows broad and potent neutralization against SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2 and its variants of concern (VOCs) including XBB and BQ.1.1. S2-3-IgA2m2 is ∼1800-fold more potent than its parental IgG counterpart in neutralizing XBB. S2-3-IgA2m2 is stable in mouse lungs at least for three days when administrated by nasal delivery. In hamsters infected with BA.5, three intranasal doses of S2-3-IgA2m2 at 1 mg/kg significantly reduce viral RNA loads and completely eliminate infectious particles in the trachea and lungs. Notably, even at single dose of 1 mg/kg, S2-3-IgA2m2 prophylactically administered through the intranasal route drastically reduces airway viral RNA loads and infectious particles. This study provides an effective weapon combating SARS-CoV-2, proposes a new strategy overcoming the virus escape, and lays strategic reserves for rapid response to potential future outbreaks of "SARS-CoV-3".
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Affiliation(s)
- Weihong Zeng
- Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230001, China
| | - Xiaoying Jia
- State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Xiangyang Chi
- Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing 100071, China
| | - Xinghai Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Entao Li
- Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China
| | - Yan Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Yang Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Jin Han
- Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China
| | - Kang Ni
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Xiaodong Ye
- Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
| | - Xiaowen Hu
- Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230001, China
| | - Huan Ma
- Institute of Clinical Immunology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.
| | - Changming Yu
- Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing 100071, China.
| | - Sandra Chiu
- Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China.
| | - Tengchuan Jin
- Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China; Institute of Health and Medicine, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, Anhui, China.
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15
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Krishnamurthy HK, Pereira M, Bosco J, George J, Jayaraman V, Krishna K, Wang T, Bei K, Rajasekaran JJ. Gut commensals and their metabolites in health and disease. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1244293. [PMID: 38029089 PMCID: PMC10666787 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1244293] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose of review This review comprehensively discusses the role of the gut microbiome and its metabolites in health and disease and sheds light on the importance of a holistic approach in assessing the gut. Recent findings The gut microbiome consisting of the bacteriome, mycobiome, archaeome, and virome has a profound effect on human health. Gut dysbiosis which is characterized by perturbations in the microbial population not only results in gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms or conditions but can also give rise to extra-GI manifestations. Gut microorganisms also produce metabolites (short-chain fatty acids, trimethylamine, hydrogen sulfide, methane, and so on) that are important for several interkingdom microbial interactions and functions. They also participate in various host metabolic processes. An alteration in the microbial species can affect their respective metabolite concentrations which can have serious health implications. Effective assessment of the gut microbiome and its metabolites is crucial as it can provide insights into one's overall health. Summary Emerging evidence highlights the role of the gut microbiome and its metabolites in health and disease. As it is implicated in GI as well as extra-GI symptoms, the gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the overall well-being of the host. Effective assessment of the gut microbiome may provide insights into one's health status leading to more holistic care.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Jophi Bosco
- Vibrant America LLC., San Carlos, CA, United States
| | | | | | | | - Tianhao Wang
- Vibrant Sciences LLC., San Carlos, CA, United States
| | - Kang Bei
- Vibrant Sciences LLC., San Carlos, CA, United States
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16
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Zhakparov D, Quirin Y, Xiao Y, Battaglia N, Holzer M, Bühler M, Kistler W, Engel D, Zumthor JP, Caduff A, Baerenfaller K. Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Fragments in Wastewater Detects the Spread of New Variants during Major Events. Microorganisms 2023; 11:2660. [PMID: 38004672 PMCID: PMC10672834 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11112660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 10/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
The sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater is an unbiased method to detect the spread of emerging variants and to track regional infection dynamics, which is especially useful in case of limited testing and clinical sequencing. To test how major international events influence the spread of new variants we have sequenced SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater samples of Davos, Landquart, Lostallo, and St. Moritz in the Swiss canton of Grisons in the time around the international sports competitions in Davos and St. Moritz in December 2021, and additionally in May 2022 and January 2023 in Davos and St. Moritz during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. The prevalence of the variants identified from the wastewater sequencing data showed that the Omicron variant BA.1 had spread in Davos and St. Moritz during the international sporting events hosted there in December 2021. This spread was associated with an increase in case numbers, while it was not observed in Landquart and Lostallo. Another instance of new variant spread occurred during the WEF in January 2023, when the Omicron variant BA.2.75 arrived in Davos but not in St. Moritz. We can therefore conclude that major international events promote the spread of new variants in the respective host region, which has important implications for the protective measures that should be taken.
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Affiliation(s)
- Damir Zhakparov
- Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), University of Zurich, 7265 Davos, Switzerland; (D.Z.)
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Yves Quirin
- Cantonal Office for Nature and Environment, 7000 Chur, Switzerland
| | - Yi Xiao
- Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), University of Zurich, 7265 Davos, Switzerland; (D.Z.)
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nicole Battaglia
- Cantonal Office for Food Security and Animal Health, 7000 Chur, Switzerland
| | - Michael Holzer
- Cantonal Office for Nature and Environment, 7000 Chur, Switzerland
| | - Martin Bühler
- Cantonal Office for Military and Civil Protection, 7000 Chur, Switzerland (A.C.)
| | | | | | - Jon Paulin Zumthor
- Cantonal Office for Food Security and Animal Health, 7000 Chur, Switzerland
| | - Alexa Caduff
- Cantonal Office for Military and Civil Protection, 7000 Chur, Switzerland (A.C.)
| | - Katja Baerenfaller
- Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), University of Zurich, 7265 Davos, Switzerland; (D.Z.)
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland
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17
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Bodakuntla S, Kuhn CC, Biertümpfel C, Mizuno N. Cryo-electron microscopy in the fight against COVID-19-mechanism of virus entry. Front Mol Biosci 2023; 10:1252529. [PMID: 37867557 PMCID: PMC10587472 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1252529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 10/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and electron tomography (cryo-ET) have become a critical tool for studying viral particles. Cryo-EM has enhanced our understanding of viral assembly and replication processes at a molecular resolution. Meanwhile, in situ cryo-ET has been used to investigate how viruses attach to and invade host cells. These advances have significantly contributed to our knowledge of viral biology. Particularly, prompt elucidations of structures of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and its variants have directly impacted the development of vaccines and therapeutic measures. This review discusses the progress made by cryo-EM based technologies in comprehending the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-Cov-2), the virus responsible for the devastating global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with focus on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the mechanisms of the virus entry and replication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satish Bodakuntla
- Laboratory of Structural Cell Biology, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Christopher Cyrus Kuhn
- Laboratory of Structural Cell Biology, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Christian Biertümpfel
- Laboratory of Structural Cell Biology, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Naoko Mizuno
- Laboratory of Structural Cell Biology, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
- National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
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18
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Xia M, López K, Vago FS, Huang P, Auguste DI, Jiang W, Auguste AJ, Tan M. A bioengineered pseudovirus nanoparticle displaying SARS-CoV 2 RBD fully protects mice from mortality and weight loss caused by SARS-CoV 2 challenge. Biotechnol J 2023; 18:e2300130. [PMID: 37300425 PMCID: PMC10592332 DOI: 10.1002/biot.202300130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2023] [Revised: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 06/06/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although authorized COVID-19 vaccines have been shown highly effective, their significantly lower efficacy against heterologous variants, and the rapid decrease of vaccine-elicited immunity raises serious concerns, calling for improved vaccine tactics. To this end, a pseudovirus nanoparticle (PVNP) displaying the receptor binding domains (RBDs) of SARS-CoV-2 spike, named S-RBD, was generated and shown it as a promising COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The S-RBD PVNP was produced using both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems. A 3D structural model of the S-RBD PVNPs was built based on the known structures of the S60 particle and RBDs, revealing an S60 particle-based icosahedral symmetry with multiple surface-displayed RBDs that retain authentic conformations and receptor-binding functions. The PVNP is highly immunogenic, eliciting high titers of RBD-specific IgG and neutralizing antibodies in mice. The S-RBD PVNP demonstrated exceptional protective efficacy, and fully (100%) protected K18-hACE2 mice from mortality and weight loss after a lethal SARS-CoV-2 challenge, supporting the S-RBD PVNPs as a potent COVID-19 vaccine candidate. By contrast, a PVNP displaying the N-terminal domain (NTD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike exhibited only 50% protective efficacy. Since the RBD antigens of our PVNP vaccine are adjustable as needed to address the emergence of future variants, and various S-RBD PVNPs can be combined as a cocktail vaccine for broad efficacy, these non-replicating PVNPs offer a flexible platform for a safe, effective COVID-19 vaccine with minimal manufacturing cost and time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming Xia
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Krisangel López
- Department of Entomology, Fralin Life Science Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Frank S. Vago
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue Cryo-EM Facility, Purdue University, IN, USA
| | - Pengwei Huang
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Dawn I. Auguste
- Department of Entomology, Fralin Life Science Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Wen Jiang
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue Cryo-EM Facility, Purdue University, IN, USA
| | - Albert J. Auguste
- Department of Entomology, Fralin Life Science Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
- Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
| | - Ming Tan
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
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19
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Manoussopoulos Y, Anastassopoulou C, Ioannidis JPA, Tsakris A. Paired associated SARS-CoV-2 spike variable positions: a network analysis approach to emerging variants. mSystems 2023; 8:e0044023. [PMID: 37432011 PMCID: PMC10469592 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00440-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Amino acids in variable positions of proteins may be correlated, with potential structural and functional implications. Here, we apply exact tests of independence in R × C contingency tables to examine noise-free associations between variable positions of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, using as a paradigm sequences from Greece deposited in GISAID (N = 6,683/1,078 full length) for the period 29 February 2020 to 26 April 2021 that essentially covers the first three pandemic waves. We examine the fate and complexity of these associations by network analysis, using associated positions (exact P ≤ 0.001 and Average Product Correction ≥ 2) as links and the corresponding positions as nodes. We found a temporal linear increase of positional differences and a gradual expansion of the number of position associations over time, represented by a temporally evolving intricate web, resulting in a non-random complex network of 69 nodes and 252 links. Overconnected nodes corresponded to the most adapted variant positions in the population, suggesting a direct relation between network degree and position functional importance. Modular analysis revealed 25 k-cliques comprising 3 to 11 nodes. At different k-clique resolutions, one to four communities were formed, capturing epistatic associations of circulating variants (Alpha, Beta, B.1.1.318), but also Delta, which dominated the evolutionary landscape later in the pandemic. Cliques of aminoacidic positional associations tended to occur in single sequences, enabling the recognition of epistatic positions in real-world virus populations. Our findings provide a novel way of understanding epistatic relationships in viral proteins with potential applications in the design of virus control procedures. IMPORTANCE Paired positional associations of adapted amino acids in virus proteins may provide new insights for understanding virus evolution and variant formation. We investigated potential intramolecular relationships between variable SARS-CoV-2 spike positions by exact tests of independence in R × C contingency tables, having applied Average Product Correction (APC) to eliminate background noise. Associated positions (exact P ≤ 0.001 and APC ≥ 2) formed a non-random, epistatic network of 25 cliques and 1-4 communities at different clique resolutions, revealing evolutionary ties between variable positions of circulating variants and a predictive potential of previously unknown network positions. Cliques of different sizes represented theoretical combinations of changing residues in sequence space, allowing the identification of significant aminoacidic combinations in single sequences of real-world populations. Our analytic approach that links network structural aspects to mutational aminoacidic combinations in the spike sequence population offers a novel way to understand virus epidemiology and evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiannis Manoussopoulos
- Department of Microbiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- ELGO-Demeter, Plant Protection Division of Patras, Laboratory of Virology, Patras, Greece
| | - Cleo Anastassopoulou
- Department of Microbiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - John P. A. Ioannidis
- Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Departments of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Athanasios Tsakris
- Department of Microbiology, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
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20
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Rigby CV, Sabsay KR, Bisht K, Eggink D, Jalal H, te Velthuis AJW. Evolution of transient RNA structure-RNA polymerase interactions in respiratory RNA virus genomes. Virus Evol 2023; 9:vead056. [PMID: 37692892 PMCID: PMC10492445 DOI: 10.1093/ve/vead056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Revised: 08/02/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023] Open
Abstract
RNA viruses are important human pathogens that cause seasonal epidemics and occasional pandemics. Examples are influenza A viruses (IAV) and coronaviruses (CoV). When emerging IAV and CoV spill over to humans, they adapt to evade immune responses and optimize their replication and spread in human cells. In IAV, adaptation occurs in all viral proteins, including the viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. RNPs consist of a copy of the viral RNA polymerase, a double-helical coil of nucleoprotein, and one of the eight segments of the IAV RNA genome. The RNA segments and their transcripts are partially structured to coordinate the packaging of the viral genome and modulate viral mRNA translation. In addition, RNA structures can affect the efficiency of viral RNA synthesis and the activation of host innate immune response. Here, we investigated if RNA structures that modulate IAV replication processivity, so-called template loops (t-loops), vary during the adaptation of pandemic and emerging IAV to humans. Using cell culture-based replication assays and in silico sequence analyses, we find that the sensitivity of the IAV H3N2 RNA polymerase to t-loops increased between isolates from 1968 and 2017, whereas the total free energy of t-loops in the IAV H3N2 genome was reduced. This reduction is particularly prominent in the PB1 gene. In H1N1 IAV, we find two separate reductions in t-loop free energy, one following the 1918 pandemic and one following the 2009 pandemic. No destabilization of t-loops is observed in the influenza B virus genome, whereas analysis of SARS-CoV-2 isolates reveals destabilization of viral RNA structures. Overall, we propose that a loss of free energy in the RNA genome of emerging respiratory RNA viruses may contribute to the adaption of these viruses to the human population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte V Rigby
- Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Department of Pathology, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, University of Cambridge, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK
- Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Public Health England, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Kimberly R Sabsay
- Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Carl Icahn Laboratory, Lewis-Sigler Institute, Princeton University, South Drive, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Karishma Bisht
- Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Dirk Eggink
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Amsterdam UMC, Meibergdreef 9, Amsterdam 1105 AZ, The Netherlands
| | - Hamid Jalal
- Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Public Health England, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Aartjan J W te Velthuis
- Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Washington Road, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
- Center for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9, Bilthoven 3721 MA, the Netherlands
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21
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Rigby C, Sabsay K, Bisht K, Eggink D, Jalal H, te Velthuis AJ. Evolution of transient RNA structure-RNA polymerase interactions in respiratory RNA virus genomes. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.25.542331. [PMID: 37292879 PMCID: PMC10245964 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.25.542331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
RNA viruses are important human pathogens that cause seasonal epidemics and occasional pandemics. Examples are influenza A viruses (IAV) and coronaviruses (CoV). When emerging IAV and CoV spill over to humans, they adapt to evade immune responses and optimize their replication and spread in human cells. In IAV, adaptation occurs in all viral proteins, including the viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. RNPs consists of a copy of the viral RNA polymerase, a double-helical coil of nucleoprotein, and one of the eight segments of the IAV RNA genome. The RNA segments and their transcripts are partially structured to coordinate the packaging of the viral genome and modulate viral mRNA translation. In addition, RNA structures can affect the efficiency of viral RNA synthesis and the activation of host innate immune response. Here, we investigated if RNA structures that modulate IAV replication processivity, so called template loops (t-loops), vary during the adaptation of pandemic and emerging IAV to humans. Using cell culture-based replication assays and in silico sequence analyses, we find that the sensitivity of the IAV H3N2 RNA polymerase to t-loops increased between isolates from 1968 and 2017, whereas the total free energy of t-loops in the IAV H3N2 genome was reduced. This reduction is particularly prominent in the PB1 gene. In H1N1 IAV, we find two separate reductions in t-loop free energy, one following the 1918 pandemic and one following the 2009 pandemic. No destabilization of t-loops is observed in the IBV genome, whereas analysis of SARS-CoV-2 isolates reveals destabilization of viral RNA structures. Overall, we propose that a loss of free energy in the RNA genome of emerging respiratory RNA viruses may contribute to the adaption of these viruses to the human population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Rigby
- Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, 08544 New Jersey, United States
- University of Cambridge, Department of Pathology, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, United Kingdom
- Public Health England, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, United Kingdom
| | - Kimberly Sabsay
- Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, 08544 New Jersey, United States
- Sigler Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
| | - Karishma Bisht
- Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, 08544 New Jersey, United States
| | - Dirk Eggink
- Department of Medical Microbiology, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Center for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
| | - Hamid Jalal
- Public Health England, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, United Kingdom
| | - Aartjan J.W. te Velthuis
- Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, 08544 New Jersey, United States
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22
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Rouzine IM. Long-range linkage effects in adapting sexual populations. Sci Rep 2023; 13:12492. [PMID: 37528175 PMCID: PMC10393966 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-39392-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 08/03/2023] Open
Abstract
In sexual populations, closely-situated genes have linked evolutionary fates, while genes spaced far in genome are commonly thought to evolve independently due to recombination. In the case where evolution depends essentially on supply of new mutations, this assumption has been confirmed by mathematical modeling. Here I examine it in the case of pre-existing genetic variation, where mutation is not important. A haploid population with [Formula: see text] genomes, [Formula: see text] loci, a fixed selection coefficient, and a small initial frequency of beneficial alleles [Formula: see text] is simulated by a Monte-Carlo algorithm. When the number of loci, L, is larger than a critical value of [Formula: see text] simulation demonstrates a host of linkage effects that decrease neither with the distance between loci nor the number of recombination crossovers. Due to clonal interference, the beneficial alleles become extinct at a fraction of loci [Formula: see text]. Due to a genetic background effect, the substitution rate varies broadly between loci, with the fastest value exceeding the one-locus limit by the factor of [Formula: see text] Thus, the far-situated parts of a long genome in a sexual population do not evolve as independent blocks. A potential link between these findings and the emergence of new Variants of Concern of SARS-CoV-2 is discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Igor M Rouzine
- Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 194223.
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23
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Popovic M, Pantović Pavlović M, Pavlović M. Ghosts of the past: Elemental composition, biosynthesis reactions and thermodynamic properties of Zeta P.2, Eta B.1.525, Theta P.3, Kappa B.1.617.1, Iota B.1.526, Lambda C.37 and Mu B.1.621 variants of SARS-CoV-2. MICROBIAL RISK ANALYSIS 2023; 24:100263. [PMID: 37234934 PMCID: PMC10199755 DOI: 10.1016/j.mran.2023.100263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2023] [Revised: 05/07/2023] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
From the perspectives of molecular biology, genetics and biothermodynamics, SARS-CoV-2 is the among the best characterized viruses. Research on SARS-CoV-2 has shed a new light onto driving forces and molecular mechanisms of viral evolution. This paper reports results on empirical formulas, biosynthesis reactions and thermodynamic properties of biosynthesis (multiplication) for the Zeta P.2, Eta B.1.525, Theta P.3, Kappa B.1.617.1, Iota B.1.526, Lambda C.37 and Mu B.1.621 variants of SARS-CoV-2. Thermodynamic analysis has shown that the physical driving forces for evolution of SARS-CoV-2 are Gibbs energy of biosynthesis and Gibbs energy of binding. The driving forces have led SARS-CoV-2 through the evolution process from the original Hu-1 to the newest variants in accordance with the expectations of the evolution theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marko Popovic
- Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Marijana Pantović Pavlović
- Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
- University of Belgrade, Centre of Excellence in Chemistry and Environmental Engineering - ICTM, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Miroslav Pavlović
- Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
- University of Belgrade, Centre of Excellence in Chemistry and Environmental Engineering - ICTM, Belgrade, Serbia
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24
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Feng A, Bevins S, Chandler J, DeLiberto TJ, Ghai R, Lantz K, Lenoch J, Retchless A, Shriner S, Tang CY, Tong SS, Torchetti M, Uehara A, Wan XF. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging white-tailed deer in the United States. Nat Commun 2023; 14:4078. [PMID: 37429851 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39782-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 07/12/2023] Open
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 is a zoonotic virus with documented bi-directional transmission between people and animals. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) poses a unique public health risk due to the potential for reservoir establishment where variants may persist and evolve. We collected 8,830 respiratory samples from free-ranging white-tailed deer across Washington, D.C. and 26 states in the United States between November 2021 and April 2022. We obtained 391 sequences and identified 34 Pango lineages including the Alpha, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron variants. Evolutionary analyses showed these white-tailed deer viruses originated from at least 109 independent spillovers from humans, which resulted in 39 cases of subsequent local deer-to-deer transmission and three cases of potential spillover from white-tailed deer back to humans. Viruses repeatedly adapted to white-tailed deer with recurring amino acid substitutions across spike and other proteins. Overall, our findings suggest that multiple SARS-CoV-2 lineages were introduced, became enzootic, and co-circulated in white-tailed deer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aijing Feng
- Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
- Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
| | - Sarah Bevins
- USDA APHIS Wildlife Services National Wildlife Disease Program, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Jeff Chandler
- National Wildlife Research Center, Wildlife Services, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | | | - Ria Ghai
- One Health Office, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Kristina Lantz
- National Veterinary Services Laboratories, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Julianna Lenoch
- USDA APHIS Wildlife Services National Wildlife Disease Program, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Adam Retchless
- National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Susan Shriner
- National Wildlife Research Center, Wildlife Services, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Cynthia Y Tang
- Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
- Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
- MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
| | - Suxiang Sue Tong
- National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Mia Torchetti
- National Veterinary Services Laboratories, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Anna Uehara
- National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Xiu-Feng Wan
- Center for Influenza and Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
- Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
- MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
- Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, College of Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
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25
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Dwivedi R, Farrag M, Sharma P, Shi D, Shami AA, Misra SK, Ray P, Shukla J, Zhang F, Linhardt RJ, Sharp JS, Tandon R, Pomin VH. The Sea Cucumber Thyonella gemmata Contains a Low Anticoagulant Sulfated Fucan with High Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Actions against Wild-Type and Delta Variants. JOURNAL OF NATURAL PRODUCTS 2023; 86:1463-1475. [PMID: 37306476 PMCID: PMC10401483 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.3c00151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
In this work, we isolated two new sulfated glycans from the body wall of the sea cucumber Thyonella gemmata: one fucosylated chondroitin sulfate (TgFucCS) (17.5 ± 3.5% kDa) and one sulfated fucan (TgSF) (383.3 ± 2.1% kDa). NMR results showed the TgFucCS backbone composed of [→3)-β-N-acetylgalactosamine-(1→4)-β-glucuronic acid-(1→] with 70% 4-sulfated and 30% 4,6-disulfated GalNAc units and one-third of the GlcA units decorated at the C3 position with branching α-fucose (Fuc) units either 4-sulfated (65%) or 2,4-disulfated (35%) and the TgSF structure composed of a tetrasaccharide repeating unit of [→3)-α-Fuc2,4S-(1→2)-α-Fuc4S-(1→3)-α-Fuc2S-(1→3)-α-Fuc2S-(1→]n. Inhibitory properties of TgFucCS and TgSF were investigated using SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus coated with S-proteins of the wild-type (Wuhan-Hu-1) or the delta (B.1.617.2) strains and in four different anticoagulant assays, comparatively with unfractionated heparin. Molecular binding to coagulation (co)-factors and S-proteins was investigated by competitive surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. Among the two sulfated glycans tested, TgSF showed significant anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity against both strains together with low anticoagulant properties, indicating a good candidate for future studies in drug development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rohini Dwivedi
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
| | - Marwa Farrag
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
- Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Assiut 71515, Egypt
| | - Poonam Sharma
- Center for Immunology and Microbial Research, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, United States
| | - Deling Shi
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, United States
| | - Anter A Shami
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
| | - Sandeep K Misra
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
| | - Priya Ray
- Center for Immunology and Microbial Research, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, United States
| | - Jayanti Shukla
- Center for Immunology and Microbial Research, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, United States
| | - Fuming Zhang
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, United States
| | - Robert J Linhardt
- Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, United States
| | - Joshua S Sharp
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
- Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
| | - Ritesh Tandon
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
- Center for Immunology and Microbial Research, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, United States
- Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39216, United States
| | - Vitor H Pomin
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
- Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi 38677, United States
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26
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Rouzine IM, Rozhnova G. Evolutionary implications of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for the future design of vaccination strategies. COMMUNICATIONS MEDICINE 2023; 3:86. [PMID: 37336956 DOI: 10.1038/s43856-023-00320-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Once the first SARS-CoV-2 vaccine became available, mass vaccination was the main pillar of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was very effective in reducing hospitalizations and deaths. Here, we discuss the possibility that mass vaccination might accelerate SARS-CoV-2 evolution in antibody-binding regions compared to natural infection at the population level. Using the evidence of strong genetic variation in antibody-binding regions and taking advantage of the similarity between the envelope proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza, we assume that immune selection pressure acting on these regions of the two viruses is similar. We discuss the consequences of this assumption for SARS-CoV-2 evolution in light of mathematical models developed previously for influenza. We further outline the implications of this phenomenon, if our assumptions are confirmed, for the future design of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Igor M Rouzine
- Immunogenetics, Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
| | - Ganna Rozhnova
- Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- BioISI - Biosystems & Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
- Center for Complex Systems Studies (CCSS), Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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27
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Duette G, Lee E, Martins Costa Gomes G, Tungatt K, Doyle C, Stylianou VV, Lee A, Maddocks S, Taylor J, Khanna R, Bull RA, Martinello M, Sandgren KJ, Cunningham AL, Palmer S. Highly Networked SARS-CoV-2 Peptides Elicit T Cell Responses with Enhanced Specificity. Immunohorizons 2023; 7:508-527. [PMID: 37358499 PMCID: PMC10580120 DOI: 10.4049/immunohorizons.2300034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Identifying SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell epitope-derived peptides is critical for the development of effective vaccines and measuring the duration of specific SARS-CoV-2 cellular immunity. In this regard, we previously identified T cell epitope-derived peptides within topologically and structurally essential regions of SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins by applying an immunoinformatics pipeline. In this study, we selected 30 spike- and nucleocapsid-derived peptides and assessed whether these peptides induce T cell responses and avoid major mutations found in SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. Our peptide pool was highly specific, with only a single peptide driving cross-reactivity in people unexposed to SARS-COV-2, and immunogenic, inducing a polyfunctional response in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from COVID-19 recovered individuals. All peptides were immunogenic and individuals recognized broad and diverse peptide repertoires. Moreover, our peptides avoided most mutations/deletions associated with all four SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern while retaining their physicochemical properties even when genetic changes are introduced. This study contributes to an evolving definition of individual CD4+ and CD8+ T cell epitopes that can be used for specific diagnostic tools for SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses and is relevant to the development of variant-resistant and durable T cell-stimulating vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriel Duette
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Eunok Lee
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | | | - Katie Tungatt
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Chloe Doyle
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Vicki V. Stylianou
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ashley Lee
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Susan Maddocks
- Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services, Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Janette Taylor
- Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services, Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Rajiv Khanna
- QIMR Berghofer Centre for Immunotherapy and Vaccine Development, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Rowena A. Bull
- School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- The Kirby Institute, UNSW Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Marianne Martinello
- The Kirby Institute, UNSW Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Blacktown & Mount Druitt Hospital, Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kerrie J. Sandgren
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Anthony L. Cunningham
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Sarah Palmer
- Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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28
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Subhadra B, Agrawal R, Pal VK, Chenine AL, Mattathil JG, Singh A. Significant Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Activity of Bi121 against Different Variants of SARS-CoV-2. Viruses 2023; 15:1299. [PMID: 37376598 DOI: 10.3390/v15061299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Revised: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has so far infected 762 million people with over 6.9 million deaths worldwide. Broad-spectrum viral inhibitors that block the initial stages of infection by reducing virus binding and proliferation, thereby reducing disease severities, are still an unmet global medical need. We studied Bi121, which is a standardized polyphenolic-rich compound isolated from Pelargonium sidoides, against recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV)-pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2S (mutations in the spike protein) of six different variants of SARS-CoV-2. Bi121 was effective at neutralizing all six rVSV-ΔG-SARS-CoV-2S variants. The antiviral activity of Bi121 was also assessed against SARS-CoV-2 variants (USA WA1/2020, Hongkong/VM20001061/2020, B.1.167.2 (Delta), and Omicron) in Vero cells and HEK-ACE2 cell lines using RT-qPCR and plaque assays. Bi121 showed significant antiviral activity against all the four SARS-CoV-2 variants tested, suggesting a broad-spectrum activity. Bi121 fractions generated using HPLC showed antiviral activity in three fractions out of eight against SARS-CoV-2. The dominant compound identified in all three fractions using LC/MS/MS analysis was Neoilludin B. In silico structural modeling studies with Neoilludin B showed that it has a novel RNA-intercalating activity toward RNA viruses. In silico findings and the antiviral activity of this compound against several SARS-CoV-2 variants support further evaluation as a potential treatment of COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bobban Subhadra
- Biom Pharmaceutical Corporation, 2203 Industrial Blvd, Sarasota, FL 34234, USA
| | - Ragini Agrawal
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Center for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), CV Raman Ave., Bengaluru 560012, India
| | - Virender Kumar Pal
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Center for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), CV Raman Ave., Bengaluru 560012, India
| | | | | | - Amit Singh
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Center for Infectious Disease Research, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), CV Raman Ave., Bengaluru 560012, India
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29
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Cheng Y, Ji C, Zhou HY, Zheng H, Wu A. Web Resources for SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Database, Annotation, Analysis and Variant Tracking. Viruses 2023; 15:v15051158. [PMID: 37243244 DOI: 10.3390/v15051158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2023] [Revised: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
The SARS-CoV-2 genomic data continue to grow, providing valuable information for researchers and public health officials. Genomic analysis of these data sheds light on the transmission and evolution of the virus. To aid in SARS-CoV-2 genomic analysis, many web resources have been developed to store, collate, analyze, and visualize the genomic data. This review summarizes web resources used for the SARS-CoV-2 genomic epidemiology, covering data management and sharing, genomic annotation, analysis, and variant tracking. The challenges and further expectations for these web resources are also discussed. Finally, we highlight the importance and need for continued development and improvement of related web resources to effectively track the spread and understand the evolution of the virus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yexiao Cheng
- School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211100, China
- Institute of Systems Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China
- Suzhou Institute of Systems Medicine, Suzhou 215123, China
| | - Chengyang Ji
- Institute of Systems Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China
- Suzhou Institute of Systems Medicine, Suzhou 215123, China
| | - Hang-Yu Zhou
- Institute of Systems Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China
- Suzhou Institute of Systems Medicine, Suzhou 215123, China
| | - Heng Zheng
- School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211100, China
| | - Aiping Wu
- Institute of Systems Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China
- Suzhou Institute of Systems Medicine, Suzhou 215123, China
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30
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Panja A, Roy J, Mazumder A, Choudhury SM. Divergent mutations of Delta and Omicron variants: key players behind differential viral attributes across the COVID-19 waves. Virusdisease 2023:1-14. [PMID: 37363365 PMCID: PMC10171727 DOI: 10.1007/s13337-023-00823-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
The third SARS-CoV-2 pandemic wave causing Omicron variant has comparatively higher replication rate and transmissibility than the second wave-causing Delta variant. The exact mechanism behind the differential properties of Delta and Omicron in respect to infectivity and virulence is not properly understood yet. This study reports the analysis of different mutations within the receptor binding domain (RBD) of spike glycoprotein and non-structural protein (nsp) of Delta and Omicron strains. We have used computational studies to evaluate the properties of Delta and Omicron variants in this work. Q498R, Q493R and S375F mutations of RBD showed better docking scores for Omicron compared to Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, whereas nsp3_L1266I with PARP15 (7OUX), nsp3_L1266I with PARP15 (7OUX), and nsp6_G107 with ISG15 (1Z2M) showed significantly higher docking score. The findings of the present study might be helpful to reveal the probable cause of relatively milder form of COVID-19 disease manifested by Omicron in comparison to Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13337-023-00823-0.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amrita Panja
- Biochemistry, Molecular Endocrinology, and Reproductive Physiology Laboratory, Department of Human Physiology, Vidyasagar University, Paschim Medinipore, Midnapore, West Bengal 721102 India
| | - Jayita Roy
- National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Nadia, Kalyani, West Bengal 741251 India
| | - Anup Mazumder
- National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Nadia, Kalyani, West Bengal 741251 India
| | - Sujata Maiti Choudhury
- Biochemistry, Molecular Endocrinology, and Reproductive Physiology Laboratory, Department of Human Physiology, Vidyasagar University, Paschim Medinipore, Midnapore, West Bengal 721102 India
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31
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Cohen JA, Stuart RM, Panovska-Griffiths J, Mudimu E, Abeysuriya RG, Kerr CC, Famulare M, Klein DJ. The changing health impact of vaccines in the COVID-19 pandemic: A modeling study. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112308. [PMID: 36976678 PMCID: PMC10015104 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Revised: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Much of the world's population had already been infected with COVID-19 by the time the Omicron variant emerged at the end of 2021, but the scale of the Omicron wave was larger than any that had come before or has happened since, and it left a global imprinting of immunity that changed the COVID-19 landscape. In this study, we simulate a South African population and demonstrate how population-level vaccine effectiveness and efficiency changed over the course of the first 2 years of the pandemic. We then introduce three hypothetical variants and evaluate the impact of vaccines with different properties. We find that variant-chasing vaccines have a narrow window of dominating pre-existing vaccines but that a variant-chasing vaccine strategy may have global utility, depending on the rate of spread from setting to setting. Next-generation vaccines might be able to overcome uncertainty in pace and degree of viral evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jamie A Cohen
- Institute for Disease Modeling, Global Health Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA.
| | - Robyn M Stuart
- Gender Equality Division (contractor), Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths
- The Big Data Institute and the Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; The Queen's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | | | - Cliff C Kerr
- Institute for Disease Modeling, Global Health Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Michael Famulare
- Institute for Disease Modeling, Global Health Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Daniel J Klein
- Institute for Disease Modeling, Global Health Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA
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32
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Yurkovetskiy L, Egri S, Kurhade C, Diaz-Salinas MA, Jaimes JA, Nyalile T, Xie X, Choudhary MC, Dauphin A, Li JZ, Munro JB, Shi PY, Shen K, Luban J. S:D614G and S:H655Y are gateway mutations that act epistatically to promote SARS-CoV-2 variant fitness. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.03.30.535005. [PMID: 37034621 PMCID: PMC10081308 DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.30.535005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/29/2023]
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 variants bearing complex combinations of mutations that confer increased transmissibility, COVID-19 severity, and immune escape, were first detected after S:D614G had gone to fixation, and likely originated during persistent infection of immunocompromised hosts. To test the hypothesis that S:D614G facilitated emergence of such variants, S:D614G was reverted to the ancestral sequence in the context of sequential Spike sequences from an immunocompromised individual, and within each of the major SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. In all cases, infectivity of the S:D614G revertants was severely compromised. The infectivity of atypical SARS-CoV-2 lineages that propagated in the absence of S:D614G was found to be dependent upon either S:Q613H or S:H655Y. Notably, Gamma and Omicron variants possess both S:D614G and S:H655Y, each of which contributed to infectivity of these variants. Among sarbecoviruses, S:Q613H, S:D614G, and S:H655Y are only detected in SARS-CoV-2, which is also distinguished by a polybasic S1/S2 cleavage site. Genetic and biochemical experiments here showed that S:Q613H, S:D614G, and S:H655Y each stabilize Spike on virions, and that they are dispensable in the absence of S1/S2 cleavage, consistent with selection of these mutations by the S1/S2 cleavage site. CryoEM revealed that either S:D614G or S:H655Y shift the Spike receptor binding domain (RBD) towards the open conformation required for ACE2-binding and therefore on pathway for infection. Consistent with this, an smFRET reporter for RBD conformation showed that both S:D614G and S:H655Y spontaneously adopt the conformation that ACE2 induces in the parental Spike. Data from these orthogonal experiments demonstrate that S:D614G and S:H655Y are convergent adaptations to the polybasic S1/S2 cleavage site which stabilize S1 on the virion in the open RBD conformation and act epistatically to promote the fitness of variants bearing complex combinations of clinically significant mutations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonid Yurkovetskiy
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA, 02115
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Shawn Egri
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Chaitanya Kurhade
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Marco A. Diaz-Salinas
- Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Javier A. Jaimes
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA, 02115
- These authors contributed equally
| | - Thomas Nyalile
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA, 02115
| | - Xuping Xie
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA
| | - Manish C. Choudhary
- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA, 02115
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Ann Dauphin
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA, 02115
| | - Jonathan Z. Li
- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA, 02115
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - James B. Munro
- Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
| | - Pei-Yong Shi
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA
| | - Kuang Shen
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA, 02115
| | - Jeremy Luban
- Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness, Boston, MA, 02115
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
- Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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33
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Taha TY, Chen IP, Hayashi JM, Tabata T, Walcott K, Kimmerly GR, Syed AM, Ciling A, Suryawanshi RK, Martin HS, Bach BH, Tsou CL, Montano M, Khalid MM, Sreekumar BK, Renuka Kumar G, Wyman S, Doudna JA, Ott M. Rapid assembly of SARS-CoV-2 genomes reveals attenuation of the Omicron BA.1 variant through NSP6. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2308. [PMID: 37085489 PMCID: PMC10120482 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37787-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 03/31/2023] [Indexed: 04/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Although the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (BA.1) spread rapidly across the world and effectively evaded immune responses, its viral fitness in cell and animal models was reduced. The precise nature of this attenuation remains unknown as generating replication-competent viral genomes is challenging because of the length of the viral genome (~30 kb). Here, we present a plasmid-based viral genome assembly and rescue strategy (pGLUE) that constructs complete infectious viruses or noninfectious subgenomic replicons in a single ligation reaction with >80% efficiency. Fully sequenced replicons and infectious viral stocks can be generated in 1 and 3 weeks, respectively. By testing a series of naturally occurring viruses as well as Delta-Omicron chimeric replicons, we show that Omicron nonstructural protein 6 harbors critical attenuating mutations, which dampen viral RNA replication and reduce lipid droplet consumption. Thus, pGLUE overcomes remaining barriers to broadly study SARS-CoV-2 replication and reveals deficits in nonstructural protein function underlying Omicron attenuation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Taha Y Taha
- Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, USA.
| | - Irene P Chen
- Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | | | | | | | | | - Abdullah M Syed
- Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Alison Ciling
- Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | | | - Hannah S Martin
- Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Bryan H Bach
- Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Stacia Wyman
- Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Jennifer A Doudna
- Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Melanie Ott
- Gladstone Institutes, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub - San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
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34
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Van Egeren D, Stoddard M, White LF, Hochberg NS, Rogers MS, Zetter B, Joseph-McCarthy D, Chakravarty A. Vaccines Alone Cannot Slow the Evolution of SARS-CoV-2. Vaccines (Basel) 2023; 11:853. [PMID: 37112765 PMCID: PMC10143044 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11040853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Revised: 04/11/2023] [Accepted: 04/15/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The rapid emergence of immune-evading viral variants of SARS-CoV-2 calls into question the practicality of a vaccine-only public-health strategy for managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It has been suggested that widespread vaccination is necessary to prevent the emergence of future immune-evading mutants. Here, we examined that proposition using stochastic computational models of viral transmission and mutation. Specifically, we looked at the likelihood of emergence of immune escape variants requiring multiple mutations and the impact of vaccination on this process. Our results suggest that the transmission rate of intermediate SARS-CoV-2 mutants will impact the rate at which novel immune-evading variants appear. While vaccination can lower the rate at which new variants appear, other interventions that reduce transmission can also have the same effect. Crucially, relying solely on widespread and repeated vaccination (vaccinating the entire population multiple times a year) is not sufficient to prevent the emergence of novel immune-evading strains, if transmission rates remain high within the population. Thus, vaccines alone are incapable of slowing the pace of evolution of immune evasion, and vaccinal protection against severe and fatal outcomes for COVID-19 patients is therefore not assured.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debra Van Egeren
- Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY 10013, USA
| | | | - Laura F. White
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Natasha S. Hochberg
- Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
| | - Michael S. Rogers
- Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Vascular Biology Program, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Bruce Zetter
- Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Vascular Biology Program, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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35
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Zhao H, Wu D, Hassan SA, Nguyen A, Chen J, Piszczek G, Schuck P. A conserved oligomerization domain in the disordered linker of coronavirus nucleocapsid proteins. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadg6473. [PMID: 37018390 PMCID: PMC10075959 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg6473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
The nucleocapsid (N-)protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a key role in viral assembly and scaffolding of the viral RNA. It promotes liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), forming dense droplets that support the assembly of ribonucleoprotein particles with as-of-yet unknown macromolecular architecture. Combining biophysical experiments, molecular dynamics simulations, and analysis of the mutational landscape, we describe a heretofore unknown oligomerization site that contributes to LLPS, is required for the assembly of higher-order protein-nucleic acid complexes, and is coupled to large-scale conformational changes of N-protein upon nucleic acid binding. The self-association interface is located in a leucine-rich sequence of the intrinsically disordered linker between N-protein folded domains and formed by transient helices assembling into trimeric coiled-coils. Critical residues stabilizing hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions between adjacent helices are highly protected against mutations in viable SARS-CoV-2 genomes, and the oligomerization motif is conserved across related coronaviruses, thus presenting a target for antiviral therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huaying Zhao
- Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Di Wu
- Biophysics Core Facility, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Sergio A. Hassan
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Ai Nguyen
- Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Jiji Chen
- Advanced Imaging and Microscopy Resource, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Grzegorz Piszczek
- Biophysics Core Facility, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Peter Schuck
- Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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36
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Gu H, Quadeer AA, Krishnan P, Ng DYM, Chang LDJ, Liu GYZ, Cheng SMS, Lam TTY, Peiris M, McKay MR, Poon LLM. Within-host genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 lineages in unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1793. [PMID: 37002233 PMCID: PMC10063955 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37468-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Viral and host factors can shape SARS-CoV-2 evolution. However, little is known about lineage-specific and vaccination-specific mutations that occur within individuals. Here, we analysed deep sequencing data from 2,820 SARS-CoV-2 respiratory samples with different viral lineages to describe the patterns of within-host diversity under different conditions, including vaccine-breakthrough infections. In unvaccinated individuals, variant of Concern (VOC) Alpha, Delta, and Omicron respiratory samples were found to have higher within-host diversity and were under neutral to purifying selection at the full genome level compared to non-VOC SARS-CoV-2. Breakthrough infections in 2-dose or 3-dose Comirnaty and CoronaVac vaccinated individuals did not increase levels of non-synonymous mutations and did not change the direction of selection pressure. Vaccine-induced antibody or T cell responses did not appear to have significant impact on within-host SARS-CoV-2 sequence diversification. Our findings suggest that vaccination does not increase exploration of SARS-CoV-2 protein sequence space and may not facilitate emergence of viral variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haogao Gu
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Ahmed Abdul Quadeer
- Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Pavithra Krishnan
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Daisy Y M Ng
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Lydia D J Chang
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Gigi Y Z Liu
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Samuel M S Cheng
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Tommy T Y Lam
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Centre for Immunology & Infection, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Malik Peiris
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Centre for Immunology & Infection, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong SAR, China
- HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Matthew R McKay
- Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Leo L M Poon
- School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- Centre for Immunology & Infection, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
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37
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Nawrocki EP. Faster SARS-CoV-2 sequence validation and annotation for GenBank using VADR. NAR Genom Bioinform 2023; 5:lqad002. [PMID: 36685728 PMCID: PMC9853093 DOI: 10.1093/nargab/lqad002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2022] [Revised: 11/28/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
In 2020 and 2021, >1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences were submitted to GenBank. The initial version (v1.0) of the VADR (Viral Annotation DefineR) software package that GenBank uses to automatically validate and annotate incoming viral sequences is too slow and memory intensive to process many thousands of SARS-CoV-2 sequences in a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, long stretches of ambiguous N nucleotides, which are common in many SARS-CoV-2 sequences, prevent VADR from accurate validation and annotation. VADR has been updated to more accurately and rapidly annotate SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Stretches of consecutive Ns are now identified and temporarily replaced with expected nucleotides to facilitate processing, and the slowest steps have been overhauled using blastn and glsearch, increasing speed, reducing the memory requirement from 64Gb to 2Gb per thread, and allowing simple, coarse-grained parallelization on multiple processors per host. VADR is now nearly 1000 times faster than it was in early 2020 SARS-CoV-2 sequence processing. It has been used to screen and annotate more than 1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences since June 2020, and it is now efficient enough to cope with the current rate of hundreds of thousands of submitted sequences per month.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric P Nawrocki
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20894, USA
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38
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Wang W, Qu Y, Wang X, Xiao MZX, Fu J, Chen L, Zheng Y, Liang Q. Genetic variety of ORF3a shapes SARS-CoV-2 fitness through modulation of lipid droplet. J Med Virol 2023; 95:e28630. [PMID: 36861654 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.28630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2023] [Revised: 02/22/2023] [Accepted: 02/24/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2023]
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection leads to the accumulation of lipid droplets (LD), the central hubs of the lipid metabolism, in vitro or in type II pneumocytes and monocytes from coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) patients and blockage of LD formation by specific inhibitors impedes SARS-CoV-2 replication. Here, we showed that ORF3a is necessary and sufficient to trigger LD accumulation during SARS-CoV-2 infection, leading to efficient virus replication. Although highly mutated during evolution, ORF3a-mediated LD modulation is conserved in most SARS-CoV-2 variants except the Beta strain and is a major difference between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 that depends on the genetic variations on the amino acid position 171, 193, and 219 of ORF3a. Importantly, T223I substitution in recent Omicron strains (BA.2-BF.8) impairs ORF3a-Vps39 association and LD accumulation, leading to less efficient replication and potentially contributing to lower pathogenesis of the Omicron strains. Our work characterized how SARS-CoV-2 modulates cellular lipid homeostasis to benefit its replication during virus evolution, making ORF3a-LD axis a promising drug target for the treatment of COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weili Wang
- Center for Immune-Related Diseases at Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Cell Differentiation and Apoptosis of Chinese Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Yafei Qu
- Center for Immune-Related Diseases at Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Cell Differentiation and Apoptosis of Chinese Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Xin Wang
- Center for Immune-Related Diseases at Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Cell Differentiation and Apoptosis of Chinese Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Maggie Z X Xiao
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Joyce Fu
- Department of Statistics, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, USA
| | - Lei Chen
- Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Yuejuan Zheng
- The Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Institute of Infectious Disease and Biosecurity, Shanghai University of Traditional Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine and Immunology Research, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai University of Traditional Medicine, Shanghai, China
| | - Qiming Liang
- Center for Immune-Related Diseases at Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Key Laboratory of Cell Differentiation and Apoptosis of Chinese Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
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Abbasian MH, Mahmanzar M, Rahimian K, Mahdavi B, Tokhanbigli S, Moradi B, Sisakht MM, Deng Y. Global landscape of SARS-CoV-2 mutations and conserved regions. J Transl Med 2023; 21:152. [PMID: 36841805 PMCID: PMC9958328 DOI: 10.1186/s12967-023-03996-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 33.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 02/27/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND At the end of December 2019, a novel strain of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease (COVID-19) has been identified in Wuhan, a central city in China, and then spread to every corner of the globe. As of October 8, 2022, the total number of COVID-19 cases had reached over 621 million worldwide, with more than 6.56 million confirmed deaths. Since SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences change due to mutation and recombination, it is pivotal to surveil emerging variants and monitor changes for improving pandemic management. METHODS 10,287,271 SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence samples were downloaded in FASTA format from the GISAID databases from February 24, 2020, to April 2022. Python programming language (version 3.8.0) software was utilized to process FASTA files to identify variants and sequence conservation. The NCBI RefSeq SARS-CoV-2 genome (accession no. NC_045512.2) was considered as the reference sequence. RESULTS Six mutations had more than 50% frequency in global SARS-CoV-2. These mutations include the P323L (99.3%) in NSP12, D614G (97.6) in S, the T492I (70.4) in NSP4, R203M (62.8%) in N, T60A (61.4%) in Orf9b, and P1228L (50.0%) in NSP3. In the SARS-CoV-2 genome, no mutation was observed in more than 90% of nsp11, nsp7, nsp10, nsp9, nsp8, and nsp16 regions. On the other hand, N, nsp3, S, nsp4, nsp12, and M had the maximum rate of mutations. In the S protein, the highest mutation frequency was observed in aa 508-635(0.77%) and aa 381-508 (0.43%). The highest frequency of mutation was observed in aa 66-88 (2.19%), aa 7-14, and aa 164-246 (2.92%) in M, E, and N proteins, respectively. CONCLUSION Therefore, monitoring SARS-CoV-2 proteomic changes and detecting hot spots mutations and conserved regions could be applied to improve the SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic efficiency and design safe and effective vaccines against emerging variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Hadi Abbasian
- Department of Medical Genetics, National Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammadamin Mahmanzar
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA
| | - Karim Rahimian
- Department of Bioinformatics, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics (IBB), University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Bahar Mahdavi
- Department of Computer Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Samaneh Tokhanbigli
- Discipline of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Bahman Moradi
- Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
| | - Mahsa Mollapour Sisakht
- Department of Biochemistry, Erasmus University Medical Center, 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Youping Deng
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA.
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40
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Offersgaard A, Duarte Hernandez CR, Feng S, Marichal-Gallardo P, Holmbeck K, Pihl AF, Fernandez-Antunez C, Alzua GP, Hartmann KT, Pham LV, Zhou Y, Gammeltoft KA, Fahnøe U, Schneider UV, Pedersen GK, Jensen HE, Christensen JP, Ramirez S, Bukh J, Gottwein JM. An inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine induced cross-neutralizing persisting antibodies and protected against challenge in small animals. iScience 2023; 26:105949. [PMID: 36644321 PMCID: PMC9829433 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.105949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Revised: 11/07/2022] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Vaccines have relieved the public health burden of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and globally inactivated vaccines are most widely used. However, poor vaccination accessibility and waning immunity maintain the pandemic, driving emergence of variants. We developed an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (I-SARS-CoV-2) vaccine based on a viral isolate with the Spike mutation D614G, produced in Vero cells in a scalable bioreactor, inactivated with β-propiolactone, purified by membrane-based steric exclusion chromatography, and adjuvanted with MF59-like adjuvant AddaVax. I-SARS-CoV-2 and a derived split vaccine induced persisting neutralizing antibodies in mice; moreover, lyophilized antigen was immunogenic. Following homologous challenge, I-SARS-CoV-2 immunized hamsters were protected against disease and lung pathology. In contrast with reports for widely used vaccines, hamster plasma similarly neutralized the homologous and the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant viruses, whereas the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant was neutralized less efficiently. Applied bioprocessing approaches offer advantages regarding scalability and production, potentially benefitting worldwide vaccine coverage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Offersgaard
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Carlos Rene Duarte Hernandez
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Shan Feng
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Pavel Marichal-Gallardo
- Bioprocess Engineering, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Kenn Holmbeck
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Anne Finne Pihl
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Carlota Fernandez-Antunez
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Garazi Peña Alzua
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Katrine Top Hartmann
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
| | - Long V. Pham
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Yuyong Zhou
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Karen Anbro Gammeltoft
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Ulrik Fahnøe
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Uffe Vest Schneider
- Department of Clinical Microbiology, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark
| | | | - Henrik Elvang Jensen
- Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
| | - Jan Pravsgaard Christensen
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Santseharay Ramirez
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Jens Bukh
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark
| | - Judith Margarete Gottwein
- Copenhagen Hepatitis C Program (CO-HEP), Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital–Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark,CO-HEP, Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark,Corresponding author
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41
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Taha TY, Chen IP, Hayashi JM, Tabata T, Walcott K, Kimmerly GR, Syed AM, Ciling A, Suryawanshi RK, Martin HS, Bach BH, Tsou CL, Montano M, Khalid MM, Sreekumar BK, Kumar GR, Wyman S, Doudna JA, Ott M. Rapid assembly of SARS-CoV-2 genomes reveals attenuation of the Omicron BA.1 variant through NSP6. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.01.31.525914. [PMID: 36798416 PMCID: PMC9934579 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.31.525914] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Although the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (BA.1) spread rapidly across the world and effectively evaded immune responses, its viral fitness in cell and animal models was reduced. The precise nature of this attenuation remains unknown as generating replication-competent viral genomes is challenging because of the length of the viral genome (30kb). Here, we designed a plasmid-based viral genome assembly and resc ue strategy (pGLUE) that constructs complete infectious viruses or noninfectious subgenomic replicons in a single ligation reaction with >80% efficiency. Fully sequenced replicons and infectious viral stocks can be generated in 1 and 3 weeks, respectively. By testing a series of naturally occurring viruses as well as Delta-Omicron chimeric replicons, we show that Omicron nonstructural protein 6 harbors critical attenuating mutations, which dampen viral RNA replication and reduce lipid droplet consumption. Thus, pGLUE overcomes remaining barriers to broadly study SARS-CoV-2 replication and reveals deficits in nonstructural protein function underlying Omicron attenuation.
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42
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González-Vázquez LD, Arenas M. Molecular Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Genes (Basel) 2023; 14:407. [PMID: 36833334 PMCID: PMC9956206 DOI: 10.3390/genes14020407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2022] [Revised: 01/27/2023] [Accepted: 02/02/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) produced diverse molecular variants during its recent expansion in humans that caused different transmissibility and severity of the associated disease as well as resistance to monoclonal antibodies and polyclonal sera, among other treatments. In order to understand the causes and consequences of the observed SARS-CoV-2 molecular diversity, a variety of recent studies investigated the molecular evolution of this virus during its expansion in humans. In general, this virus evolves with a moderate rate of evolution, in the order of 10-3-10-4 substitutions per site and per year, which presents continuous fluctuations over time. Despite its origin being frequently associated with recombination events between related coronaviruses, little evidence of recombination was detected, and it was mostly located in the spike coding region. Molecular adaptation is heterogeneous among SARS-CoV-2 genes. Although most of the genes evolved under purifying selection, several genes showed genetic signatures of diversifying selection, including a number of positively selected sites that affect proteins relevant for the virus replication. Here, we review current knowledge about the molecular evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in humans, including the emergence and establishment of variants of concern. We also clarify relationships between the nomenclatures of SARS-CoV-2 lineages. We conclude that the molecular evolution of this virus should be monitored over time for predicting relevant phenotypic consequences and designing future efficient treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis Daniel González-Vázquez
- Biomedical Research Center (CINBIO), University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Immunology, University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
| | - Miguel Arenas
- Biomedical Research Center (CINBIO), University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
- Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Immunology, University of Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain
- Galicia Sur Health Research Institute (IIS Galicia Sur), 36310 Vigo, Spain
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43
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Pal S, Mehta P, Pandey A, Ara A, Ghoshal U, Ghoshal UC, Pandey R, Tripathi RK, Yadav PN, Ravishankar R, Kundu TK, Rajender S. Molecular determinants associated with temporal succession of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Uttar Pradesh, India. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:986729. [PMID: 36819024 PMCID: PMC9929466 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.986729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The emergence and rapid evolution of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused a global crisis that required a detailed characterization of the dynamics of mutational pattern of the viral genome for comprehending its epidemiology, pathogenesis and containment. We investigated the molecular evolution of the SASR-CoV-2 genome during the first, second and third waves of COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh, India. Nanopore sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 genome was undertaken in 544 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which included vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. In the first wave (unvaccinated population), the 20A clade (56.32%) was superior that was replaced by 21A Delta in the second wave, which was more often seen in vaccinated individuals in comparison to unvaccinated (75.84% versus 16.17%, respectively). Subsequently, 21A delta got outcompeted by Omicron (71.8%), especially the 21L variant, in the third wave. We noticed that Q677H appeared in 20A Alpha and stayed up to Delta, D614G appeared in 20A Alpha and stayed in Delta and Omicron variants (got fixed), and several other mutations appeared in Delta and stayed in Omicron. A cross-sectional analysis of the vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals during the second wave revealed signature combinations of E156G, F157Del, L452R, T478K, D614G mutations in the Spike protein that might have facilitated vaccination breach in India. Interestingly, some of these mutation combinations were carried forward from Delta to Omicron. In silico protein docking showed that Omicron had a higher binding affinity with the host ACE2 receptor, resulting in enhanced infectivity of Omicron over the Delta variant. This work has identified the combinations of key mutations causing vaccination breach in India and provided insights into the change of [virus's] binding affinity with evolution, resulting in more virulence in Delta and more infectivity in Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2. Our findings will help in understanding the COVID-19 disease biology and guide further surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 genome to facilitate the development of vaccines with better efficacies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Smita Pal
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, India
| | - Poonam Mehta
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, India,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, India
| | - Ankita Pandey
- Department of Microbiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India
| | - Anam Ara
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, India
| | - Ujjala Ghoshal
- Department of Microbiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India
| | - Uday C. Ghoshal
- Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India
| | - Rajesh Pandey
- Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, India,CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi, India
| | - Raj Kamal Tripathi
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, India,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, India
| | - Prem N. Yadav
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, India,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, India
| | - Ramachandran Ravishankar
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, India,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, India
| | - Tapas K. Kundu
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, India,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, India,Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India
| | - Singh Rajender
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow (CSIR-CDRI), Lucknow, India,Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, India,*Correspondence: Singh Rajender, ✉
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44
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Correlated substitutions reveal SARS-like coronaviruses recombine frequently with a diverse set of structured gene pools. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2206945119. [PMID: 36693089 PMCID: PMC9945976 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2206945119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Quantifying SARS-like coronavirus (SL-CoV) evolution is critical to understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and the molecular processes that could underlie future epidemic viruses. While genomic analyses suggest recombination was a factor in the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, few studies have quantified recombination rates among SL-CoVs. Here, we infer recombination rates of SL-CoVs from correlated substitutions in sequencing data using a coalescent model with recombination. Our computationally-efficient, non-phylogenetic method infers recombination parameters of both sampled sequences and the unsampled gene pools with which they recombine. We apply this approach to infer recombination parameters for a range of positive-sense RNA viruses. We then analyze a set of 191 SL-CoV sequences (including SARS-CoV-2) and find that ORF1ab and S genes frequently undergo recombination. We identify which SL-CoV sequence clusters have recombined with shared gene pools, and show that these pools have distinct structures and high recombination rates, with multiple recombination events occurring per synonymous substitution. We find that individual genes have recombined with different viral reservoirs. By decoupling contributions from mutation and recombination, we recover the phylogeny of non-recombined portions for many of these SL-CoVs, including the position of SARS-CoV-2 in this clonal phylogeny. Lastly, by analyzing >400,000 SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequences, we show current diversity levels are insufficient to infer the within-population recombination rate of the virus since the pandemic began. Our work offers new methods for inferring recombination rates in RNA viruses with implications for understanding recombination in SARS-CoV-2 evolution and the structure of clonal relationships and gene pools shaping its origins.
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45
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It takes a village to build a virus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2219052120. [PMID: 36701364 PMCID: PMC9945952 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2219052120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
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46
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Ali S, Bello B, Tayebi Z, Patterson M. Characterizing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Sequences Based on Geographical Location. JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY : A JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY 2023; 30:432-445. [PMID: 36656554 DOI: 10.1089/cmb.2022.0391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
With the rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide, viral genomic data are available in the order of millions of sequences on public databases such as GISAID. This Big Data creates a unique opportunity for analysis toward the research of effective vaccine development for current pandemics, and avoiding or mitigating future pandemics. One piece of information that comes with every such viral sequence is the geographical location where it was collected-the patterns found between viral variants and geographical location surely being an important part of this analysis. One major challenge that researchers face is processing such huge, highly dimensional data to obtain useful insights as quickly as possible. Most of the existing methods face scalability issues when dealing with the magnitude of such data. In this article, we propose an approach that first computes a numerical representation of the spike protein sequence of SARS-CoV-2 using k-mers (substrings) and then uses several machine learning models to classify the sequences based on geographical location. We show that our proposed model significantly outperforms the baselines. We also show the importance of different amino acids in the spike sequences by computing the information gain corresponding to the true class labels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarwan Ali
- Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Babatunde Bello
- Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Zahra Tayebi
- Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Murray Patterson
- Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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47
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Flisiak R, Rzymski P, Zarębska-Michaluk D, Ciechanowski P, Dobrowolska K, Rogalska M, Jaroszewicz J, Szymanek-Pasternak A, Rorat M, Kozielewicz D, Kowalska J, Dutkiewicz E, Sikorska K, Moniuszko-Malinowska A. Variability in the Clinical Course of COVID-19 in a Retrospective Analysis of a Large Real-World Database. Viruses 2023; 15:149. [PMID: 36680188 PMCID: PMC9863894 DOI: 10.3390/v15010149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2022] [Revised: 12/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic proceeds in waves, with variable characteristics of the clinical picture resulting from the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This study aimed to compare the epidemiological characteristics, symptomatology, and outcomes of the disease in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 during periods of different variants dominance. Comparing the periods of dominance of variants preceding the Delta variant, the Delta period was characterized by a higher share of hospitalized females, less frequent comorbidities among patients, and a different age distribution. The lowest need for oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation was observed under Omicron dominance. The triad of classic COVID-19 symptoms, cough, fever, dyspnoea, and fatigue, were most prevalent during the Delta period, and significantly less common under the Omicron dominance. During the Omicron period, nearly twice as many patients as in the previous periods could be discharged from the hospital within 7 days; the overall 28-day mortality was significantly lower compared to that of the Delta period. It also did not differ between periods that were dominated by the BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants. The study indicates that the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant that dominated between January and June 2022 caused a disease which resembled the common cold, and was caused by seasonal alpha and beta-coronaviruses with a low pathogenicity for humans. However, one should note that this effect may not only have been related to biological features of the Omicron lineage, but may additionally have been driven by the increased levels of immunization through natural infections and vaccinations, for which we could not account for due to a lack of sufficient data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Flisiak
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Medical University of Białystok, 15-540 Białystok, Poland
| | - Piotr Rzymski
- Department of Environmental Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-806 Poznań, Poland
| | | | - Przemysław Ciechanowski
- Department of Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases, Regional Hospital in Szczecin, 71-455 Szczecin, Poland
| | | | - Magdalena Rogalska
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Medical University of Białystok, 15-540 Białystok, Poland
| | - Jerzy Jaroszewicz
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, 41-902 Bytom, Poland
| | - Anna Szymanek-Pasternak
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Wrocław Medical University, 51-149 Wrocław, Poland
| | - Marta Rorat
- Department of Forensic Medicine, Wrocław Medical University, 50-367 Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Dorota Kozielewicz
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Hepatology, Faculty of Medicine, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 87-100 Torun, Poland
| | - Justyna Kowalska
- Department of Adult’s Infectious Diseases, Medical University of Warsaw, Hospital for Infectious Diseases, 02-091 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Ewa Dutkiewicz
- Collegium Medicum, Jan Kochanowski University, 25-317 Kielce, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Sikorska
- Division of Tropical and Parasitic Diseases, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Gdańsk, 80-210 Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Anna Moniuszko-Malinowska
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Neuroinfections, Medical University of Białystok, 15-809 Bialystok, Poland
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48
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Aguilar-Bretones M, Fouchier RA, Koopmans MP, van Nierop GP. Impact of antigenic evolution and original antigenic sin on SARS-CoV-2 immunity. J Clin Invest 2023; 133:e162192. [PMID: 36594464 PMCID: PMC9797340 DOI: 10.1172/jci162192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 35.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Infections with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and vaccinations targeting the spike protein (S) offer protective immunity against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This immunity may further be shaped by cross-reactivity with common cold coronaviruses. Mutations arising in S that are associated with altered intrinsic virus properties and immune escape result in the continued circulation of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Potentially, vaccine updates will be required to protect against future variants of concern, as for influenza. To offer potent protection against future variants, these second-generation vaccines may need to redirect immunity to epitopes associated with immune escape and not merely boost immunity toward conserved domains in preimmune individuals. For influenza, efficacy of repeated vaccination is hampered by original antigenic sin, an attribute of immune memory that leads to greater induction of antibodies specific to the first-encountered variant of an immunogen compared with subsequent variants. In this Review, recent findings on original antigenic sin are discussed in the context of SARS-CoV-2 evolution. Unanswered questions and future directions are highlighted, with an emphasis on the impact on disease outcome and vaccine design.
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49
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Neverov AD, Fedonin G, Popova A, Bykova D, Bazykin G. Coordinated evolution at amino acid sites of SARS-CoV-2 spike. eLife 2023; 12:82516. [PMID: 36752391 PMCID: PMC9908078 DOI: 10.7554/elife.82516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2022] [Accepted: 01/15/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 has adapted in a stepwise manner, with multiple beneficial mutations accumulating in a rapid succession at origins of VOCs, and the reasons for this are unclear. Here, we searched for coordinated evolution of amino acid sites in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, we searched for concordantly evolving site pairs (CSPs) for which changes at one site were rapidly followed by changes at the other site in the same lineage. We detected 46 sites which formed 45 CSP. Sites in CSP were closer to each other in the protein structure than random pairs, indicating that concordant evolution has a functional basis. Notably, site pairs carrying lineage defining mutations of the four VOCs that circulated before May 2021 are enriched in CSPs. For the Alpha VOC, the enrichment is detected even if Alpha sequences are removed from analysis, indicating that VOC origin could have been facilitated by positive epistasis. Additionally, we detected nine discordantly evolving pairs of sites where mutations at one site unexpectedly rarely occurred on the background of a specific allele at another site, for example on the background of wild-type D at site 614 (four pairs) or derived Y at site 501 (three pairs). Our findings hint that positive epistasis between accumulating mutations could have delayed the assembly of advantageous combinations of mutations comprising at least some of the VOCs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexey Dmitrievich Neverov
- HSE UniversityMoscowRussian Federation,Central Research Institute for EpidemiologyMoscowRussian Federation
| | - Gennady Fedonin
- Central Research Institute for EpidemiologyMoscowRussian Federation,Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (National Research University)MoscowRussian Federation,Institute for Information Transmission Problems (Kharkevich Institute) of the Russian Academy of SciencesMoscowRussian Federation
| | - Anfisa Popova
- Central Research Institute for EpidemiologyMoscowRussian Federation
| | - Daria Bykova
- Central Research Institute for EpidemiologyMoscowRussian Federation,Lomonosov Moscow State UniversityMoscowRussian Federation
| | - Georgii Bazykin
- Institute for Information Transmission Problems (Kharkevich Institute) of the Russian Academy of SciencesMoscowRussian Federation,Skolkovo Institute of Science and TechnologyMoscowRussian Federation
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50
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Muacevic A, Adler JR. Attenuation and Degeneration of SARS-CoV-2 Despite Adaptive Evolution. Cureus 2023; 15:e33316. [PMID: 36741655 PMCID: PMC9894646 DOI: 10.7759/cureus.33316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2022] [Accepted: 01/02/2023] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) has followed similar trends as other RNA viruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus type 1 and the influenza A virus. Rapid initial diversification was followed by strong competition and a rapid succession of dominant variants. Host-initiated RNA editing has been the primary mechanism for introducing mutations. A significant number of mutations detrimental to viral replication have been quickly purged. Fixed mutations are mostly diversifying mutations selected for host adaptation and immune evasion, with the latter accounting for the majority of the mutations. However, immune evasion often comes at the cost of functionality, and thus, optimal functionality is still far from being accomplished. Instead, selection for antibody-escaping variants and accumulation of near-neutral mutations have led to suboptimal codon usage and reduced replicative capacity, as demonstrated in non-respiratory cell lines. Beneficial adaptation of the virus includes reduced infectivity in lung tissues and increased tropism for the upper airway, resulting in shorter incubation periods, milder diseases, and more efficient transmission between people.
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