The architecture of inactivated SARS-COV-2 with postfusion spikes revealed by cryo-em and cryo-et

The ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted from the outbreak of SARSCoV-2 in December 2019. Currently, multiple efforts are being made to rapidly develop vaccines and treatments to fight COVID-19. Current vaccine candidates use inactivated SARS-CoV-2 viruses; therefore, it is important to understand the architecture of inactivated SARS-CoV-2. We have genetically and structurally characterized b-propiolactone-inactivated viruses from a propagated and purified clinical strain of SARSCoV-2. We observed that the virus particles are roughly spherical or moderately pleiomorphic. Although a small fraction of prefusion spikes are found, most spikes appear nail shaped, thus resembling a postfusion state, where the S1 protein of the spike has disassociated from S2. Cryoelectron tomography and subtomogram averaging of these spikes yielded a density map that closely matches the overall structure of the SARSCoV postfusion spike and its corresponding glycosylation site. Our findings have major implications for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine design, especially those using inactivated viruses.

• Tipo de recurso: Article of investigation
• Fecha de publicación: 2020
• Institución: Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano
• Repositorio: Expeditio: repositorio UTadeo
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:expeditiorepositorio.utadeo.edu.co:20.500.12010/14508
• Acceso en línea: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2020.10.001; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12010/14508
• Palabra clave: Architecture of Inactivated; SARS-CoV-2; Postfusion Spikes Revealed; Síndrome respiratorio agudo grave; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Coronavirus
• License: Abierto (Texto Completo)