The emerging plasticity of SARS-CoV-2

McCormick, Kevin D.; Jacobs, Jana L.; Mellors, John W.

doi:10.1126/science.abg4493

Cited by 140 publications

(166 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Compared with wild-type viruses, the D614G mutation enhanced the ability of virus proliferation and transmission ( Daniloski et al, 2021 ). The N501Y strengthened the affinity with human ACE2 and the infectivity, while 501Y·V2 variant is more resistant to multiple monoclonal antibodies, convalescent plasma, and vaccinee sera partly due to the E484K substitution ( Cele et al, 2021 ; McCormick et al, 2021 ; Noh et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, Kemp et al found the virus population changed dynamically during convalescent plasma therapy, which was characterized by the emergence of a dominant virus carrying double mutates in the spike, including D796H in the S2 and ΔH69/ΔV70 in the N-terminal of the S1 ( Kemp et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Molecular Evolution Of Sars-cov-2 In the Human Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent progress on the mutations of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and suggestions for prevention and controlling of the pandemic

Zhang

Chen

et al. 2021

Infection, Genetics and Evolution

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has caused a global pandemic in the past year, which poses continuing threat to human beings. To date, more than 3561 mutations in the viral spike protein were identified, including 2434 mutations that cause amino acid changes with 343 amino acids located in the viral receptor-binding domain (RBD). Among these mutations, the most representative ones are substitution mutations such as D614G, N501Y, Y453F, N439K/R, P681H, K417N/T, and E484K, and deletion mutations of ΔH69/V70 and Δ242–244, which confer the virus with enhanced infectivity, transmissibility, and resistance to neutralization. In this review, we discussed the recent findings of SARS-CoV-2 for highlighting mutations and variants on virus transmissibility and pathogenicity. Moreover, several suggestions for prevention and controlling the pandemic are also proposed

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Section: Molecular Evolution Of Sars-cov-2 In the Human Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent progress on the mutations of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and suggestions for prevention and controlling of the pandemic

Zhang

Chen

et al. 2021

Infection, Genetics and Evolution

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“…While the SARS-CoV-2 Spike number is moderate compared to other enveloped viruses such as influenza, it is even lower for HIV-1 with 14 or fewer Env spikes incorporated into the viral membrane (Figure 1, Table 1) [95]. The high plasticity of HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, as characteristic for Retroviridae and Coronaviridae, and their potential to tolerate sequence and structural changes without critical loss of function has warranted their zoonotic transmission and ongoing evolutionary success [96,97].…”

Section: Viral Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It implies that SARS-CoV-2 variants are converging based on common purifying selection processes. The associated appearance of mutations, e.g., in South African and Brazilian/Japanese variants at Spike positions 417, 484, and 501 indicate the importance of synergisms and compensatory mutations to fine-tune neutralization escape, infectivity, and replicative fitness [96,328]. Close monitoring of variants will remain crucial to identify emerging nAb escape variants and discern phylodynamic spread based on immune pressure from founder effects and sampling bias.…”

Section: Sars-cov-2 Mutates On a Low But Constant Level Yielding Mutant Variants Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Duerr¹,

Jimenez²,

Dittmann³

2021

Preprint

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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.

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“…Certainly, such an exercise could be repeated multiple times as new data become available from different locations around the World, but this is not the goal of our approach. Since the first revision of the manuscript in October 2020, the introduction of vaccines has contributed to bringing under control the trajectory of the Covid-19 virus 26,27,28,29 but the emergence of new variants and mutations 30,31,32 , most notably in India but also elsewhere, reminds us of possible challenges for vaccines and immunotherapies alike.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Engineering Model of the COVID-19 Trajectory to Predict Success of Isolation Initiatives

King

Striolo

2021

Preprint

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Much media and societal attention is today focused on how to best control the spread of Covid-19. Every day brings us new data, and policymakers are implementing different strategies in different countries to manage the impact of Covid-19. To respond to the first ‘wave’ of infection, several countries, including the UK, opted for isolation/lockdown initiatives, with different degrees of rigour. Data showed that these initiatives have yield the expected results in terms of containing the rapid trajectory of the virus. When this manuscript was first prepared (April 2020), the affected societies were wondering when the isolation/lockdown initiatives should be lifted. While detailed epidemiologic, economic as well as social studies would be required to answer this question completely, we employ here a simple engineering model. Albeit simple, the model is capable of reproducing the main features of the data reported in the literature concerning the Covid-19 trajectory in different countries, including the increase in cases in countries following the initially successful isolation/lockdown initiatives. Keeping in mind the simplicity of the model, we attempt to draw some conclusions, which seem to suggest that a decrease in the number of infected individuals after the initiation of isolation/lockdown initiatives does not necessarily guarantee that the virus trajectory is under control. Within the limit of this model, it would appear that rigid isolation/lockdown initiatives for the medium term would lead to achieving the desired control over the spread of the virus. This observation seems consistent with the 2020 summer months, during which the Covid-19 trajectory seemed to be almost under control across most European countries. Consistent with the results from our simple model, winter 2020 data show that the virus trajectory was again on the rise. Because the optimal solution will achieve control over the spread of the virus while minimising negative societal impacts due to isolation/lockdown, which include but are not limited to economic and mental health aspects, the engineering model presented here is not sufficient to provide the desired answer. However, the model seems to suggest that to keep the Covid-19 trajectory under control, a series of short-to-medium term isolation measures should be put in place until one or more of the following scenarios is achieved: a cure has been developed and has become accessible to the population at large; a vaccine has been developed, tested, and distributed to large portions of the population; a sufficiently large portion of the population has developed resistance to the Covid-19 virus; or the virus itself has become less aggressive. It is somewhat remarkable that an engineering model, despite all its approximations, provides suggestions consistent with advanced epidemiologic models developed by several experts in the field. The model proposed here is however not expected to be able to capture the emergence of variants of the virus, which seem to be responsible for significant outbreaks, notably in India, in the spring 2021, it cannot describe the effectiveness of vaccine strategies, as it does not differentiate among different age groups within the population, nor it allows us to consider the duration of the immunity achieved after infection or vaccination.

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The emerging plasticity of SARS-CoV-2

Abstract: The evolution of SARS-CoV-2 poses challenges for vaccines and immunotherapies

Cited by 140 publications

References 13 publications

Recent progress on the mutations of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and suggestions for prevention and controlling of the pandemic

Recent progress on the mutations of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and suggestions for prevention and controlling of the pandemic

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

An Engineering Model of the COVID-19 Trajectory to Predict Success of Isolation Initiatives

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