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Hsieh CL, Goldsmith JA, Schaub JM, DiVenere AM, Kuo HC, Javanmardi K, Le KC, Wrapp D, Lee AGW, Liu Y, Chou CW, Byrne PO, Hjorth CK, Johnson NV, Ludes-Meyers J, Nguyen AW, Park J, Wang N, Amengor D, Maynard JA, Finkelstein IJ, McLellan JS. Structure-based Design of Prefusion-stabilized SARS-CoV-2 Spikes. bioRxiv 2020:2020.05.30.125484. [PMID: 32577660 PMCID: PMC7302215 DOI: 10.1101/2020.05.30.125484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/12/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has led to accelerated efforts to develop therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines to mitigate this public health emergency. A key target of these efforts is the spike (S) protein, a large trimeric class I fusion protein that is metastable and difficult to produce recombinantly in large quantities. Here, we designed and expressed over 100 structure-guided spike variants based upon a previously determined cryo-EM structure of the prefusion SARS-CoV-2 spike. Biochemical, biophysical and structural characterization of these variants identified numerous individual substitutions that increased protein yields and stability. The best variant, HexaPro, has six beneficial proline substitutions leading to ~10-fold higher expression than its parental construct and is able to withstand heat stress, storage at room temperature, and multiple freeze-thaws. A 3.2 Å-resolution cryo-EM structure of HexaPro confirmed that it retains the prefusion spike conformation. High-yield production of a stabilized prefusion spike protein will accelerate the development of vaccines and serological diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ching-Lin Hsieh
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Jory A. Goldsmith
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Jeffrey M. Schaub
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Andrea M. DiVenere
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Hung-Che Kuo
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Kamyab Javanmardi
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Kevin C. Le
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Daniel Wrapp
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Alison Gene-Wei Lee
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Yutong Liu
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Chia-Wei Chou
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Patrick O. Byrne
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Christy K. Hjorth
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Nicole V. Johnson
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - John Ludes-Meyers
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Annalee W. Nguyen
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Juyeon Park
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Nianshuang Wang
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Dzifa Amengor
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Jennifer A. Maynard
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Ilya J. Finkelstein
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
- Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
| | - Jason S. McLellan
- Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
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