March 5, 2021

SARS-CoV-2 Variant with Higher Affinity to ACE2 Shows Reduced Sera Neutralization Susceptibility

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Vaccines and Immunity

Keywords (Tags): antibodies, immunity, variants

• [Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] An in vitro study of newly-emerging SARS-CoV-2 mutations in the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the viral spike protein found in the P.1 variant (first described in Brazil) demonstrated increased angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) affinity for the mutant RBD and reduced neutralization ability of immune sera induced from prior strains. RBD mutations at K417N, E484K and N501Y resulted in increased affinity of SARS-CoV-2 for ACE2 by a factor of 2. Both mouse immune-induced sera and human sera from convalescent patients showed reduced capacity to block binding of ACE2 in mutant RBD, providing evidence that the P.1 variant may be more infectious and less susceptible to neutralization by antibodies induced with previous strains.  

Vogel et al. (Mar 4, 2021). SARS-CoV-2 Variant with Higher Affinity to ACE2 Shows Reduced Sera Neutralization Susceptibility. Pre-print downloaded Mar 5 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.04.433887