SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.5 may be a cautionary variant by in silico study

Aki Sugano; Haruyuki Kataguchi; Mika Ohta; Yoshiaki Someya; Shigemi Kimura; Yoshimasa Maniwa; Toshihide Tabata; Yutaka Takaoka

doi:10.1101/2023.01.18.524660

ABSTRACT

In this research, we aimed to predict the relative risk of the recent new variants of SARS-CoV-2 as based on our previous research. First, we performed the molecular docking simulation analyses of the spike proteins with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to understand the binding affinities to human cells of three new variants of SARS-CoV-2, Omicron BQ.1, XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 Then, three variants were subjected to determine the evolutionary distance of the spike protein gene (S gene) from the Wuhan, Omicron BA.1 and Omicron BA.4/5 variants, to appreciate the changes in the S gene. The result indicated that the XBB.1.5 had the highest binding affinity level of the spike protein with ACE2 and the longest evolutionary distance of the S gene. It suggested that the XBB.1.5 may be infected farther and faster than can infections of preexisting variants.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Abbreviations

S gene: spike protein gene
ACE2: angiotensin-converting enzyme
RBD: receptor binding domain

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