Structural and functional characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2 spike
Zhang, J.; Weichun, T.; Gao, H.; Lavine, C.; Shi, W.; Peng, H.; Zhu, H.; Anand, K.; Kosikova, M.; Kwon, H. J.; Tong, P.; Gautam, A.; Rits-Volloch, S.; Wang, S.; Mayer, M. L.; Wesemann, D.; Seaman, M. S.; Lu, J.; Xiao, T.; Xie, H.; Chen, B.
Show abstract
The Omicron subvariant BA.2 has become the dominant circulating strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in many countries. We have characterized structural, functional and antigenic properties of the full-length BA.2 spike (S) protein and compared replication of the authentic virus in cell culture and animal model with previously prevalent variants. BA.2 S can fuse membranes more efficiently than Omicron BA.1, mainly due to lack of a BA.1-specific mutation that may retard the receptor engagement, but still less efficiently than other variants. Both BA.1 and BA.2 viruses replicated substantially faster in animal lungs than the early G614 (B.1) strain in the absence of pre-existing immunity, possibly explaining the increased transmissibility despite their functionally compromised spikes. As in BA.1, mutations in the BA.2 S remodel its antigenic surfaces leading to strong resistance to neutralizing antibodies. These results suggest that both immune evasion and replicative advantage may contribute to the heightened transmissibility for the Omicron subvariants.
Matching journals
The top 5 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Structure-based design of a soluble human cytomegalovirus glycoprotein B antigen stabilized in a prefusion-like conformation 97%
- Conversion of monoclonal IgG to dimeric and secretory IgA restores neutralizing ability and prevents infection of Omicron lineages 97%
- Cell Surface Nucleocapsid Protein Expression: A Betacoronavirus Immunomodulatory Strategy 96%
Similar papers in this journal
- Temperature-dependent Spike-ACE2 interaction of Omicron subvariants is associated with viral transmission 97%
- Structural and Mechanistic Bases for Resistance of the M66I Capsid Variant to Lenacapavir 97%
- A combination of RBD and NTD neutralizing antibodies limits the generation of SARS-CoV-2 spike neutralization-escape mutants 97%
Similar papers in this journal
- The Sequence Basis for Selectivity of Ephrin-B2 Ligand for Eph Receptors and Pathogenic Henipavirus G Glycoproteins 97%
- Antibody recognition of CD4-induced open HIV-1 Env trimers 97%
- Asymmetric structures and conformational plasticity of the uncleaved full-length human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) envelope glycoprotein trimer 97%
Similar papers in this journal
- HIV Envelope Trimer-Elicited Autologous Neutralizing Antibodies Bind a Region Overlapping the N332 Glycan Supersite 97%
- A human monoclonal antibody targeting a conserved pocket in the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain core 97%
- Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern evade humoral immune responses from infection and vaccination 97%
Similar papers in this journal
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.