V367F Mutation in SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD Emerging during the Early Transmission Phase Enhances Viral Infectivity through Increased Human ACE2 Receptor Binding Affinity

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Abstract

A novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused the pandemic of COVID-19. The origin of SARS-CoV-2 was associated with zoonotic infections.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.15.991844: (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
    100μl of HRP anti-His Tag Antibody (BioLegend, USA) (
    anti-His
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    These two constructs were transfected into HEK293 cells using polyethyleneimine.
    HEK293
    suggested: CLS Cat# 300192/p777_HEK293, RRID:CVCL_0045)
    Briefly, 293T cells, at about 70-90% confluence, were co-transfected with 9 ug of the transfer vector (pLv-CMV), 6 ug packaging plasmid (psPAX-lentiviral), and 6 ug envelope plasmid (pCB-spike or pCB-spikeV367F).
    293T
    suggested: None
    spike-mediated pseudovirus entry assay: To detect S variants mediated viral entry, VERO E6 and Caco2 cells (5×104) grown in 24-well plates were respectively infected with either 20 MOI of S-V367 or S-F367-bearing pseudovirus (1×107
    Caco2
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Alignment of S protein sequences from different sources and comparison of ACE2 proteins among different species were performed using MAFFT version 7, with default parameters (https://mafft.cbrc.jp/alignmeloadnt/server/) and Bioedit[33,34].
    MAFFT
    suggested: (MAFFT, RRID:SCR_011811)
    Molecular dynamics simulation was performed using GROMACS 2019 with the following options and parameters: explicit solvent model, system temperature 37°C, OPLS/AA all-atoms force field, and LINCS restraints.
    GROMACS
    suggested: (GROMACS, RRID:SCR_014565)

    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 found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).


    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.

    About SciScore

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