SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Mutations and Escape from Antibodies: A Computational Model of Epitope Loss in Variants of Concern (original) (raw)
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Currently, SARS-CoV-2 causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is responsible for one of the most deleterious pandemics of our time. The interaction between the ACE2 receptors at the surface of human cells and the viral Spike (S) protein triggers the infection, making the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 S-protein a focal target for the neutralizing antibodies (Abs). Despite the recent progress in the development and deployment of vaccines, the emergence of novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 insensitive to Abs produced in response to the vaccine administration and/or monoclonal ones represent a potential danger. Here, we analyzed the diversity of neutralizing Ab epitopes and assessed the possible effects of single and multiple mutations in the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 S-protein on its binding affinity to various antibodies and the human ACE2 receptor using bioinformatics approaches. The RBD-Ab complexes with experimentally resolved structures were grouped into four clusters wit...
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ABSTRACTThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic highlights the need for a detailed molecular understanding of protective antibody responses. This is underscored by the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants, including B.1.1.7, P1, and B.1.351, some of which appear to be less effectively targeted by current monoclonal antibodies and vaccines. Here we report a high resolution and comprehensive map of antibody recognition of the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain (RBD), which is the target of most neutralizing antibodies, using computational structural analysis. With a dataset of nonredundant experimentally determined antibody-RBD structures, we classified antibodies by RBD residue binding determinants using unsupervised clustering. We also identified the energetic and conservation features of epitope residues and assessed the capacity of viral variant mutations to disrupt antibody recognition, revealing sets of antibodies predicted to effectively target recently described viral variants. T...
2020
Betacoronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is posing a major threat to human health and its diffusion around the world is having dire socioeconomical consequences. Thanks to the scientific community’s unprecedented efforts, the atomic structure of several viral proteins has been promptly resolved. As the crucial mediator of host cell infection, the heavily glycosylated trimeric viral Spike protein (S) has been attracting the most attention and is at the center of efforts to develop antivirals, vaccines, and diagnostic solutions.Herein, we use an energy-decomposition approach to identify antigenic domains and antibody binding sites on the fully glycosylated S protein. Crucially, all that is required by our method are unbiased atomistic molecular dynamics simulations; no prior knowledge of binding properties or ad hoc combinations of parameters/measures extracted from simulations is needed. Our method simply exploits the analysis of energy interactions between all intra-protomer aminoacid and monosac...
Vaccines
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic with a high morbidity rate occurring over recent years. COVID-19 is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome causing coronavirus type-2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 not only challenged mankind but also gave scope to the evolution of various vaccine design technologies. Although these vaccines protected and saved many lives, with the emerging viral strains, some of the strains may pose a threat to the currently existing vaccine design that is primarily based on the wild type spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. To evaluate the risk involved from such mutant viral strains, we performed a systematic in silico amino acid substitution of critical residues in the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein. Our molecular modeling analysis revealed significant topological changes in the RBD of spike protein suggesting that they could potentially contribute to the loss of antigen specificity for the currently existing therapeutic antibodies/...
Chemical Science, 2022
Monoclonal antibodies are emerging as a viable treatment for the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). However, newly evolved variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can reduce the efficacy of currently available antibodies and can diminish vaccine-induced immunity. Here, we demonstrate that the microscopic dynamics of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies can be profoundly modified by the mutations present in the spike proteins of the SARS-COV-2 variants currently circulating in the world population. The dynamical perturbations within the antibody structure, which alter the thermodynamics of antigen recognition, are diverse and can depend both on the nature of the antibody and on the spatial location of the spike mutation. The correlation between the motion of the antibody and that of the spike receptor binding domain (RBD) can also be changed, modulating binding affinity. Using protein-graph-connectivity networks, we delineated the mutant-induced modifications in the information-flow along allosteric pathway throughout the antibody. Changes in the collective dynamics were spatially distributed both locally and across long-range distances within the antibody. On the receptor side, we identified an anchor-like structural element that prevents the detachment of the antibodies; individual mutations there can significantly affect the antibody binding propensity. Our study provides insight into how virus neutralization by monoclonal antibodies can be impacted by local mutations in the epitope via a change in dynamics. This realization adds a new layer of sophistication to the efforts for rational design of monoclonal antibodies against new variants of SARS-CoV2, taking the allostery in the antibody into consideration.
The Protein Journal
Using molecular dynamics simulations, the protein-protein interactions of the receptor-binding domain of the wild-type and seven variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 spike protein and the peptidase domain of human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 were investigated. These variants are alpha, beta, gamma, delta, eta, kappa, and omicron. Using 100 ns simulation data, the residue interaction networks at the protein-protein interface were identified. Also, the impact of mutations on essential protein dynamics, backbone flexibility, and interaction energy of the simulated protein-protein complexes were studied. The protein-protein interface for the wild-type, delta, and omicron variants contained several stronger interactions, while the alpha, beta, gamma, eta, and kappa variants exhibited an opposite scenario as evident from the analysis of the inter-residue interaction distances and pair-wise interaction energies. The study reveals that two distinct residue networks at the central and right contact regions forge stronger binding affinity between the protein partners. The study provides a molecular-level insight into how enhanced transmissibility and infectivity by delta and omicron variants are most likely tied to a handful of interacting residues at the binding interface, which could potentially be utilized for future antibody constructs and structure-based antiviral drug design.
2023
Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus, has posed a significant global health threat since its emergence in late 2019. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, due to its rapid global spread and impact on public health. New variants have raised concerns about their potential impact on the transmission of the virus and the effectiveness of current diagnostic tools, treatments, and vaccines. This study aims to investigate the effect of new variants in Pakistani virus strains on human receptors, specifically ACE2 and NRP1. In-silico analysis provides a powerful tool to analyze the potential impact of new variants on protein structure, function, and interactions. Objectives: The SARS-CoV-2 virus is evolving quickly. After being exposed in Wuhan, SARS-CoV-2 underwent numerous mutations, leading to several variants' emergence. These variants stabilize the interaction of spike protein with human receptors ACE2 and NRP1. The study aims to check the molecular effect of these variants on human receptors using the in-silico approach. Material and methods: We use in-silico mutational tools to analyze new variants in SARS-CoV-2 and to check the molecular interaction of spike protein with human receptors (ACE2 and NRP1). Genomic sequences of 41 SARS-CoV-2 strains were sequenced using Ion Torrent (NGS) and submitted to the GISAID database. Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 sequence trimmed and translated into a protein sequence using ExPasy. We used multiple sequence alignments to check for variants in the spike protein of strains. We utilized mutation tools such as Mupro, SIFT, SNAP2, and Mutpred2.3D structures of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins (wild and mutated) to analyze further the mutations, ACE2 and NRP1 modelled by the ITASSER protein modelling server. Interactions of spike proteins (wild and mutant) analyzed by MD Docking, Simulation, and MMGBSA Results: Variants I210T, V213G, S371F, S373P, T478K, F486V, Y505H, and D796Y were identified in SARS-CoV-2 Pakistani strains' spike protein. Variant Y505H were found to affect protein function. MD Docking, MMGBSA and MD simulation revealed that these variants increased spike protein's binding affinity with human receptors (ACE2 and NRP1). MD simulation revealed that mutated spike protein stabilized earlier than wild when interacting with ACE2 after 40 ns and interaction with NRP1 stabilized after 30 ns for mutated spike protein compared to wild. Conclusion: These variants in Pakistani strains of SARS-CoV-2 are increasing the stability of spike protein with human receptors. These findings provide insight into how the SARS-CoV-2 virus evolves and adapts to human hosts. This information may help develop strategies to control the virus's spread and develop effective treatments and vaccines in the future.
PeerJ
Background The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic reverberated, posing health and social hygiene obstacles throughout the globe. Mutant lineages of the virus have concerned scientists because of convergent amino acid alterations, mainly on the viral spike protein. Studies have shown that mutants have diminished activity of neutralizing antibodies and enhanced affinity with its human cell receptor, the ACE2 protein. Methods Hence, for real-time measuring of the impacts caused by variant strains in such complexes, we implemented E-Volve, a tool designed to model a structure with a list of mutations requested by users and return analyses of the variant protein. As a proof of concept, we scrutinized the spike-antibody and spike-ACE2 complexes formed in the variants of concern, B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.351 (Beta), and P.1 (Gamma), by using contact maps depicting the interactions made amid them, along with heat maps to quantify these major interactions. Results The results found in this study depict the hig...
Molecular strategies for antibody binding and escape of SARS-CoV-2 and its mutations
2021
The COVID19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has infected more than 100 million people worldwide. Due to the rapid spreading of SARS-CoV-2 and its impact, it is paramount to find effective treatments against it. Human neutralizing antibodies are an effective method to fight viral infection. However, the recent discovery of new strains that substantially change the S-protein sequence has raised concern about vaccines and antibodies’ effectiveness. Here, we investigated the binding mechanisms between the S-protein and several antibodies. Multiple mutations were included to understand the strategies for antibody escape in new variants. We found that the combination of mutations K417N and E484K produced higher binding energy to ACE2 than the wild type, suggesting higher efficiency to enter host cells. The mutations’ effect depends on the antibody class. While Class I enhances the binding avidity in the presence of N501Y mutation, class II antibodies showed a sharp decline in the binding ...