Role of spike in the pathogenic and antigenic behavior of SARS-CoV-2 BA.1 Omicron

Abstract The recently identified, globally predominant SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (BA.1) is highly transmissible, even in fully vaccinated individuals, and causes attenuated disease compared with other major viral variants recognized to date1–7. The Omicron spike (S) protein, with an unusually large number of mutations, is considered the major driver of these phenotypes3,8. We generated chimeric recombinant SARS-CoV-2 encoding the S gene of Omicron in the backbone of an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 isolate and compared this virus with the naturally circulating Omicron variant. The Omicron S-bearing virus robustly escapes vaccine-induced humoral immunity, mainly due to mutations in the receptor-binding motif (RBM), yet unlike naturally occurring Omicron, efficiently replicates in cell lines and primary-like distal lung cells. In K18-hACE2 mice, while Omicron causes mild, non-fatal infection, the Omicron S-carrying virus inflicts severe disease with a mortality rate of 80%. This indicates that while the vaccine escape of Omicron is defined by mutations in S, major determinants of viral pathogenicity reside outside of S..

Medienart:

Preprint

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

bioRxiv.org - (2023) vom: 12. Jan. Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2023

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Chen, Da-Yuan [VerfasserIn]
Kenney, Devin [VerfasserIn]
Chin, Chue Vin [VerfasserIn]
Tavares, Alexander H. [VerfasserIn]
Khan, Nazimuddin [VerfasserIn]
Conway, Hasahn L. [VerfasserIn]
Liu, GuanQun [VerfasserIn]
Choudhary, Manish C. [VerfasserIn]
Gertje, Hans P. [VerfasserIn]
O’Connell, Aoife K. [VerfasserIn]
Kotton, Darrell N. [VerfasserIn]
Herrmann, Alexandra [VerfasserIn]
Ensser, Armin [VerfasserIn]
Connor, John H. [VerfasserIn]
Bosmann, Markus [VerfasserIn]
Li, Jonathan Z. [VerfasserIn]
Gack, Michaela U. [VerfasserIn]
Baker, Susan C. [VerfasserIn]
Kirchdoerfer, Robert N. [VerfasserIn]
Kataria, Yachana [VerfasserIn]
Crossland, Nicholas A. [VerfasserIn]
Douam, Florian [VerfasserIn]
Saeed, Mohsan [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext [kostenfrei]

Themen:

570
Biology

doi:

10.1101/2022.10.13.512134

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

XBI037580256