SARS-CoV-2 Portrayed Against HIV: Contrary Viral Strategies in Similar Disguise

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 and HIV are zoonotic viruses that rapidly reached pandemic scale causing global losses and fear. The COVID-19 and AIDS pandemics ignited massive efforts worldwide to develop antiviral strategies and characterize viral architectures, biological and immunological properties, and clinical outcomes. Although both viruses have a comparable appearance as enveloped, positive-stranded RNA viruses with envelope spikes mediating cellular entry, the entry process, downstream biological and immunological pathways, clinical outcomes, and disease courses are strikingly different. This review provides a systemic comparison of both viruses’ structural and functional characteristics delineating their distinct strategies for efficient spread.

Dominance of Alpha and Iota variants in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections in New York City

“…When we disregarded unique mutations per data set in our calculations, the mutation analysis yielded 21 distinct spike sites with enriched mutations in breakthrough infections (Figure 3A, Supplementary Table 4). Although individual sites did not achieve significance in Fisher's exact tests, the array of sieved mutation sites drew a striking pattern of N-terminal domain (NTD) deletions (ΔV69-H70 and ΔY144), receptor-binding domain (RBD) mutations (K417, S477, E484, and N501), a mutation near the furin binding site (P681X), and also C-terminal mutations (T1027X and D1118X), all of which have been associated with enhanced immune evasion or ACE2 receptor binding, and/or recurring mutations in emerging VOCs/VOIs 22,42 .…”

“…With millions of people vaccinated in multiple countries, they have proven to be highly effective in the real world [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] , although a very small percentage of breakthrough infections have occurred, as expected [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . Contemporaneously with the vaccination efforts in several countries, new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerged, four of which were designated by the WHO as variants of concern (VOC), B.1.1.7 or Alpha, B.1.351 or Beta, P.1 or Gamma, and B.1.617.2 or Delta, which arose originally in the UK, South Africa, Brazil, and India, respectively 22,23 . VOCs are classified as such if they are more transmissible, cause more severe disease or a significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated via previous infection or after vaccination.…”

Dominance of Alpha and Iota variants in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections in New York City

“…When we disregarded unique mutations per data set in our calculations, the mutation analysis yielded 23 distinct spike sites with enriched mutations in breakthrough infections (Figure 3A, Supplementary Table 4). Although individual sites did not achieve significance in Fisher's exact tests, the array of sieved mutation sites drew a striking pattern of N-terminal domain (NTD) deletions (ΔY144 and ΔV69-H70), receptor-binding domain (RBD) mutations (E484K, N501Y, and K417N/T), an S1 mutation known to modulate the RBD up or down positioning (A570D/V) (1), a mutation right in front of the furin binding site known to affect/improve S1/S2 cleavage (P681H/R) (2), and also C-terminal mutations in S2 (T716I, S982A, T1027I, and D1118H), all of which have been associated with enhanced immune evasion, ACE2 receptor binding, and/or recurring in VOCs/VOIs (3,4). The overrepresentation was most pronounced for E484K, followed by A570D/V, P681H/R, and ΔY144, which surpassed background spike mutation levels in unvaccinated controls (compared to Wuhan-Hu-1) by more than 12-fold.…”

“…With millions of people vaccinated in multiple countries, they have proven to be highly effective in the real world (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21), although a very small percentage of breakthrough infections have occurred, as expected (8,(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31). Contemporaneously with the vaccination efforts in several countries, new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerged, four of which were designated by the WHO as variants of concern (VOC), B.1.1.7 or Alpha, B.1.351 or Beta, P.1 or Gamma, and B.1.617.2 or Delta, which arose originally in the UK, South Africa, Brazil, and India, respectively (3,6). VOCs are classified as such if they are more transmissible, cause more severe disease or a significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated via previous infection or after vaccination.…”

Global Dynamics of a Within‐Host COVID‐19/AIDS Coinfection Model with Distributed Delays

“…If infected with COVID-19, such people are at a greater risk of developing acute symptoms and dying. Te coinfection cases are challenging due to the scarcity of data on the outcomes and consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in HIV-1 positive individuals [3,6,7].…”