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Effect of natural mutations of SARS-CoV-2 on spike structure, conformation, and antigenicity

Sophie M.-C. Gobeil, Katarzyna Janowska, Shana McDowell, Katayoun Mansouri, Robert Parks, Victoria Stalls, Megan F. Kopp, Kartik Manne, Dapeng Li, Kevin Wiehe, Kevin O. Saunders, Robert J. Edwards, Bette Korber, Barton F. Haynes, Rory Henderson, Priyamvada Acharya
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INTRODUCTION

Variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been circulating worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic. Some are termed Variants of Concern (VOC) because they show evidence for increased transmissibility, higher disease severity, resistance to neutralizing antibodies elicited by current vaccines or from previous infection, reduced efficacy of treatments, or failure of diagnostic detection methods. VOCs accumulate mutations in the spike (S) glycoprotein. Some VOCs that arose independently in different geographical locations show identical changes, implying convergent evolution and selective advantages of the acquired variations. A set of three amino acid substitutions in the receptor-binding domain (RBD)—Lys417 → Asn (K417N), Glu484 → Lys (E484K), and Asn501 → Tyr (N501Y)—occurred in the B.1.1.28 and B.1.351 lineages that originated in Brazil and South Africa, respectively. The P.1 lineage that branched off B.1.1.28 harbored a Lys417 → Thr (K417T) substitution while retaining the E484K and N501Y changes. The E484K substitution has attracted attention as a result of its location within the epitope of many potent neutralizing antibodies. The N501Y substitution also occurred in the B.1.1.7 variant that originated in the UK and was implicated in increased receptor binding and higher transmissibility of the variant. The B.1.1.7 variant, in turn, shares the His69/Val70 spike deletion mutation with spike from a variant that was implicated in transmission between humans and minks (ΔFVI).

RATIONALE

Global sequencing initiatives and in vitro neutralization and antibody binding assays have rapidly provided critical and timely information on the VOCs. Here, by combining cryo–electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structural determination with binding assays and computational analyses on the variant spikes, we sought to visualize the impact of the amino acid substitutions on spike conformation to understand how these changes affect their biological function.

RESULTS

We measured angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and antibody binding for 19 SARS-CoV-2 S ectodomain constructs harboring amino acid changes found in circulating variants. These included a variant involved in interspecies SARS-CoV-2 transmission between humans and minks, as well as several VOCs including the B.1.1.7, B.1.1.28/P.1, and B.1.351 variants. Consistent with published neutralization data, B.1.1.7 showed decreased binding to N-terminal domain (NTD)–directed antibodies, whereas P.1 and B.1.351 showed reduced binding to both NTD- and RBD-directed antibodies. All variants showed increased binding to ACE2, which was mediated by higher propensity for RBD-up states, and affinity-enhancing mutations in the RBD. We observed spike instability in the mink-associated variant, highlighted by the presence of a population in the cryo-EM dataset with missing density for the S1 subunit of one protomer. Modulation of contacts between the SD1 and HR1 regions led to increased RBD-up states of the B.1.1.7 spike, with the protein stability maintained by a balance of stabilizing and destabilizing mutations. A local destabilizing effect of the RBD E484K mutation was implicated in resistance of the B.1.1.28/P.1 and B.1.351 variants to some potent RBD-directed neutralizing antibodies.

CONCLUSION

Our study revealed details of how amino acid substitutions affect spike conformation in circulating SARS-CoV-2 VOCs. We define communication networks that modulate spike allostery and show that the S protein uses different mechanisms to converge upon similar solutions for altering the RBD up/down positioning.

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Publicado en el sitio 2021-08-08 15:02:28

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