SARS-COV-2 (B.1.351) STABILIZED SPIKE GLYCOPROTEIN (TRIMERIC), HIS-STREP-TAG (HEK293)

SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.351) stabilized spike glycoprotein, from the South Africa variant. It contains amino acid changes L18F, D80A, D215G, del242-244, K417N, E484K, N501Y, D614G, and A701V, relative to Wuhan-Hu-1.  SARS-CoV-2, previously known as the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), causes the pandemic COVID-19 disease.

PRODUCT DETAILS – SARS-COV-2 (B.1.351) STABILIZED SPIKE GLYCOPROTEIN (TRIMERIC), HIS-STREP-TAG (HEK293)

• SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.351) stabilized spike, a full-length spike glycoprotein (“South African variant”)
• Relative to Wuhan-Hu-1 contains following amino acid changes: L18F, D80A, D215G, del242-244, K417N, E484K, N501Y, D614G, A701V.
• The protein contains six proline amino acid changes (commonly known as Hexapro) to stabilize it in a trimeric pre-fusion state. The furin cleavage site has been altered to ‘SRAS’ and deactivated.
• Expressed in HEK293 and purified by affinity chromatography.
• Presented in DPBS at

BACKGROUND

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The sequence WIV04/2019, belonging to the GISAID S clade / PANGOLIN A lineage / Nextstrain 19B clade, is believed to be the original sequence infecting humans (Zhukova et al., 2020). However, there are many thousands of variants of SARS-CoV-2 (Koyama et al., 2020) and subtypes of the virus can be placed into much larger groupings such as lineages or clades.

The 501.V2 variant, also known as 501.V2, 20H/501Y.V2 (formerly 20C/501Y.V2), or lineage B.1.351, was first detected in South Africa in December 2020 (Tegally et al., 2020). It was reported that the prevalence of the variant was higher among young people with no underlying health conditions, more frequently resulting in serious illness compared to other variants. It was speculated that this variant may be driving a second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in the country due to it spreading at a more rapid pace than other earlier variants of the virus. Routine sequencing by South African health authorities found that this new SARS-CoV-2 variant had largely replaced other SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. The 501.V2 variant contains several mutations that allow it to attach more easily to human cells, namely N501Y, K417N, and E484K and preliminary studies suggest the variant is associated with a higher viral load, which may suggest potential for increased transmissibility. The N501Y mutation is also present in the UK Lineage B.1.1.7. This mutation is of concern because it is located in the SARS-CoV-2 (501.V2) spike RBD, the viruses receptor-binding domain and increases binding to the receptor ACE2 (angiotensin converting enzyme 2).

REFERENCES

• Koyama T, Platt D, Parida L. Variant analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes. Bull World Health Organ. 2020 Jul 1;98(7):495-504.
• Tegally, H. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.21.20248640 (2020).
• WHO. SARS-CoV-2 Variants. Disease Outbreak News. 31 December 2020
• Zhukova A, Blassel L, Lemoine F, Morel M, Voznica J, Gascuel O. Origin, evolution and global spread of SARS-CoV-2. C R Biol. 2020 Nov 24. doi: 10.5802/crbiol.29.