PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Daniel L. Moss
AU  - Jay Rappaport
TI  - SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern Substitutions Alter Spike Glycoprotein Receptor Binding Domain Structure and Stability
AID  - 10.1101/2021.05.11.443443
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.05.11.443443
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/14/2021.05.11.443443.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/14/2021.05.11.443443.full
AB  - The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the world not just with disease and death but also economic turmoil. The rapid development and deployment of extremely effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 has made the end of the pandemic a reality within reach. However, as the virus spreads it has acquired mutations; and thus, variants of concern have emerged that are more infectious and reduce the efficacy of existing vaccines. While promising efforts are underway to combat these variants, the evolutionary pressures leading to these variants are poorly understood. To that end, here we have studied the effects of three amino-acid substitutions on the structure and function of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein receptor-binding domain found in several variants of concern such as B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P.1 that are now circulating. We found that these substitutions alter the RBD structure and stability, as well as its ability to bind to ACE2, which may have opposing and compensatory effects. These findings provide new insights into how these Variants of Concern (VOC) may have been selected to optimize infectivity while maintaining the structure and stability of the receptor binding domain.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.