Structural patterns of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) spike protein are influenced by variant-specific amino acid mutations: A computational study with implications on viral evolution.

ABSTRACT: SARS-CoV-2 (SARS2) regularly mutates resulting to variants of concern (VOC) which have higher virulence and transmissibility rates while concurrently evading available therapeutic strategies. This highlights the importance of amino acid mutations occurring in the SARS2 spike protein structure since it may affect virus biology. However, this was never fully elucidated. Here, network analysis was performed based on the COVID-19 genomic epidemiology network between December 2019-July 2021. Representative SARS2 VOC spike protein models were generated and quality checked, protein model superimposition was done, and common contact based on contact mapping was established. Throughout this study, we found that: (1) certain individual variant-specific amino acid mutations can affect the spike prote

SUBMITTER: Cueno ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9721161 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature