Loss of pH switch unique to SARS-CoV2 supports unfamiliar virus pathology

  1. Kristina A. Paris
  2. Ulises Santiago
  3. Carlos J. Camacho

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Abstract

Cell surface receptor engagement is a critical aspect of viral infection. This paper compares the dynamics of virus-receptor interactions for SARS-CoV (CoV1) and CoV2. At low (endosomal) pH, the binding free energy landscape of CoV1 and CoV2 interactions with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor is almost the same. However, at neutral pH the landscape is different due to the loss of a pH-switch (His445Lys) in the receptor binding domain (RBD) of CoV2 relative to CoV1. Namely, CoV1 stabilizes a transition state above the bound state. In situations where small external strains are applied by, say, shear flow in the respiratory system, the off rate of the viral particle is enhanced. As a result, CoV1 virions are expected to detach from cell surfaces in time scales that are much faster than the time needed for other receptors to reach out and stabilize virus attachment. On the other hand, the loss of this pH-switch, which sequence alignments show is unique to CoV2, eliminates the transition state and allows the virus to stay bound to the ACE2 receptor for time scales compatible with the recruitment of additional ACE2 receptors diffusing in the cell membrane. This has important implications for viral infection and its pathology. CoV1 does not trigger high infectivity in the nasal area because it either rapidly drifts down the respiratory tract or is exhaled. By contrast, this novel mutation in CoV2 should not only retain the infection in the nasal cavity until ACE2-rich cells are sufficiently depleted, but also require fewer particles for infection. This mechanism explains observed longer incubation times, extended period of viral shedding, and higher rate of transmission. These considerations governing viral entry suggest that number of ACE2-rich cells in human nasal mucosa, which should be significantly smaller for children (and females relative to males), should also correlate with onset of viral load that could be a determinant of higher virus susceptibility. Critical implications for the development of new vaccines to combat current and future pandemics that, like SARS-CoV2, export evolutionarily successful strains via higher transmission rates by viral retention in nasal epithelium are also discussed.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.16.155457: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    The RBD from 2DD8 (bound to neutralizing antibody) was chosen instead of that in PDB ID 2AJF (bound to ACE2) as a starting structure as it includes otherwise missing portions of the domain.
    ACE2
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Molecular dynamics simulations (MDs) were carried out with pmemd.cuda from AMBER18 [3-5] using AMBER ff14SB force field [6] and Generalized Amber Force Field (GAFF) [7].
    AMBER
    suggested: (AMBER, RRID:SCR_016151)
    All figures were drawn using PyMOL [2] and GNUPLOT.
    PyMOL
    suggested: (PyMOL, RRID:SCR_000305)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.16.155457v1 on bioRxiv