Fusogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 subvariant and its sensitivity to the prokaryotic recombinant EK1 peptide

作者：Lijue Wang, Fanke Jiao, Hanxiao Jiang, Yitao Yang, Ziqi Huang, Qian Wang, Wei Xu, Yun Zhu, Shuai Xia, Shibo Jiang, Lu Lu · 发表于：Cell Discovery · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1038/s41421-023-00631-2 · 被引用次数：14 · 研究领域：SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research、SARS-CoV-2 detection and testing、Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology

BA.2.86, a novel SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant, has emerged along with widespread concerns since the number of mutations in its S protein exceeds that of other Omicron subvariants (Fig. 1a ). On August 18, 2023, the World Health Organization formally classified BA.2.86 as a variant under monitoring (VUM) 1 . Notably, numerous studies have reported that BA.2.86 has evaded humoral immunity induced by both inactivated and mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, as well as COVID-19 convalescent plasma 2 , 3 . However, in comparison to previous dominant SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants, the fusogenicity of BA.2.86 and its sensitivity to coronavirus fusion and replication inhibitors have yet to be systematically evaluated. Fig. 1: Fusogenicity of BA.2.86 S protein and the antiviral efficacy of reEK1. a Distinct S protein mutational profile of the Omicron subvariant BA.2.86. b Representative images of cell-cell fusion mediated by 293 T/WT(D614G)-S, BA.1-S, BA.2-S, BA.2.75-S, BA.2.86-S, XBB.1.5-S, EG.5-S, or negative control after coculture for 8 h. Scale bars, 150 µm. c Rate of fusion mediated by WT(D614G)-S, BA.1-S, BA.2-S, BA.2.75-S, BA.2.86-S, XBB.1.5-S and EG.5-S proteins on Calu-3 cells after coculture for 2, 4, 8 and 24 h. As compared with the BA.2.86 group, asterisks indicate significant differences (* P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01; *** P < 0.001, **** P < 0.0001). d Alteration of fusion capacity mediated by S939F mutation in the HR1 region. e Effect of S939F mutation on the prefusion state of S pro...