Meirson T, Bomze D, Markel G. Structural basis of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein induced by ACE2.
Bioinformatics 2021;
37:929-936. [PMID:
32818261 PMCID:
PMC7558967 DOI:
10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa744]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2020] [Revised: 07/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/14/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Motivation
The recent emergence of the novel SARS-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its international
spread pose a global health emergency. The spike (S) glycoprotein binds ACE2 and
promotes SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells. The trimeric S protein binds the receptor
using the receptor-binding domain (RBD) causing conformational changes in S protein that
allow priming by host cell proteases. Unraveling the dynamic structural features used by
SARS-CoV-2 for entry might provide insights into viral transmission and reveal novel
therapeutic targets. Using structures determined by X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM,
we performed structural analysis and atomic comparisons of the different conformational
states adopted by the SARS-CoV-2-RBD.
Results
Here, we determined the key structural components induced by the receptor and
characterized their intramolecular interactions. We show that κ-helix (polyproline-II)
is a predominant structure in the binding interface and in facilitating the conversion
to the active form of the S protein. We demonstrate a series of conversions between
switch-like κ-helix and β-strand, and conformational variations in a set of short
α-helices which affect the hinge region. These conformational changes lead to an
alternating pattern in conserved disulfide bond configurations positioned at the hinge,
indicating a possible disulfide exchange, an important allosteric switch implicated in
viral entry of various viruses, including HIV and murine coronavirus. The structural
information presented herein enables to inspect and understand the important dynamic
features of SARS-CoV-2-RBD and propose a novel potential therapeutic strategy to block
viral entry. Overall, this study provides guidance for the design and optimization of
structure-based intervention strategies that target SARS-CoV-2.
Availability
We have implemented the proposed methods in an R package freely available at https://github.com/Grantlab/bio3d
Supplementary information
Supplementary data are
available at Bioinformatics online.
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