| Autor: |
Wang HI; National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 350, Taiwan., Chuang ZS; National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 350, Taiwan., Kao YT; National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 350, Taiwan., Lin YL; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.; Biomedical Translation Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan., Liang JJ; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan., Liao CC; Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan., Liao CL; National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 350, Taiwan., Lai MMC; Research Center for Emerging Viruses, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan.; Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan., Yu CY; National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli 350, Taiwan. |
| Abstrakt: |
The SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus is a commonly used strategy that mimics certain biological functions of the authentic virus by relying on biological legitimacy at the molecular level. Despite the fact that spike (S), envelope (E), and membrane (M) proteins together wrap up the SARS-CoV-2 virion, most of the reported pseudotype viruses consist of only the S protein. Here, we report that the presence of E and M increased the virion infectivity by promoting the S protein priming. The S, E, and M (SEM)-coated pseudovirion is spherical, containing crown-like spikes on the surface. Both S and SEM pseudoviruses packaged the same amounts of viral RNA, but the SEM virus bound more efficiently to cells stably expressing the viral receptor human angiotensin-converting enzyme II (hACE2) and became more infectious. Using this SEM pseudovirus, we examined the infectivity and antigenic properties of the natural SARS-CoV-2 variants. We showed that some variants have higher infectivity than the original virus and that some render the neutralizing plasma with lower potency. These studies thus revealed possible mechanisms of the dissemination advantage of these variants. Hence, the SEM pseudovirion provides a useful tool to evaluate the viral infectivity and capability of convalescent sera in neutralizing specific SARS-CoV-2 S dominant variants. |
