Antibody-mediated spike activation promotes cell-cell transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Autor: Shi Yu, Xu Zheng, Yanqiu Zhou, Yuhui Gao, Bingjie Zhou, Yapei Zhao, Tingting Li, Yunyi Li, Jiabin Mou, Xiaoxian Cui, Yuying Yang, Dianfan Li, Min Chen, Dimitri Lavillette, Guangxun Meng
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS Pathogens, Vol 19, Iss 11, p e1011789 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1553-7366
1553-7374
DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011789
Popis: The COVID pandemic fueled by emerging SARS-CoV-2 new variants of concern remains a major global health concern, and the constantly emerging mutations present challenges to current therapeutics. The spike glycoprotein is not only essential for the initial viral entry, but is also responsible for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 components via syncytia formation. Spike-mediated cell-cell transmission is strongly resistant to extracellular therapeutic and convalescent antibodies via an unknown mechanism. Here, we describe the antibody-mediated spike activation and syncytia formation on cells displaying the viral spike. We found that soluble antibodies against receptor binding motif (RBM) are capable of inducing the proteolytic processing of spike at both the S1/S2 and S2' cleavage sites, hence triggering ACE2-independent cell-cell fusion. Mechanistically, antibody-induced cell-cell fusion requires the shedding of S1 and exposure of the fusion peptide at the cell surface. By inhibiting S1/S2 proteolysis, we demonstrated that cell-cell fusion mediated by spike can be re-sensitized towards antibody neutralization in vitro. Lastly, we showed that cytopathic effect mediated by authentic SARS-CoV-2 infection remain unaffected by the addition of extracellular neutralization antibodies. Hence, these results unveil a novel mode of antibody evasion and provide insights for antibody selection and drug design strategies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 infected cells.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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