The spiny protrusions (spikes) of the current SARS-CoV-2 variants “Delta” and “Omicron” dock faster, stronger and longer on human cells than those variants of coronaviruses at the start of the pandemic. Austrian researchers report this in the journal “Nature Communications”.
A team led by Peter Hinterdorfer of the Institute of Biophysics at the University of Linz used atomic force microscopy and computer simulations to study how the spikes of the coronavirus attach to the surface of human cells. The researchers report that the spikes, which consist of three identical components, quickly change shape when they attach to ACE2 proteins on the cell surface. As a result, their grasping zones (receptor binding domains) rotate in an arcuate motion, covering almost a full 360-degree circle together, they wrote.
“As a highly dynamic molecular grab, it forms up to three tight bonds with ACE2 on the cell surface,” the researchers explain. With the peaks of the delta and omicron variants, the binding of the virus to the ACE2 molecules of the host cells is significantly increased and prolonged compared to the original variant (Wuhan-1). Above all, the Delta variant adheres faster and Omikron ten times longer.
increased infectivity
The altered binding dynamics of the currently circulating variants increase their infectivity and virus transmission, according to the research team. So is the Austrian molecular biologist Josef Penninger, head of the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada).
Source: Krone
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