SARS-COV-2: INSIGHT INTO THE EMERGING GENETIC VARIANTS

Mini Review

Authors

  • Prof. Neli Korsun National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Author
  • Ivelina Trifonova National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Author
  • Veselin Dobrinov National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Author
  • Iliyana Grigorova National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Author
  • Svetla Angelova National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Author
  • Assoc. prof. Ivaylo Alexiev National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3186-1124

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58395/pipd.v49i3.73

Keywords:

SARS-CoV-2, mutation, genetic variant

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a highly contagious virus, which appeared in China in late 2019, spread rapidly and caused the largest pandemic in the last 100 years. Despite the intensive research, there is no specific antiviral drug currently. Effective vaccines have been developed in a short time and they are already widely used. As a RNA virus, SARS-CoV-2 mutates constantly, and several thousand genetic variants have emerged in the course of the pandemic, some of which are associated with increased infectivity, reinfection risk, reduced activity of therapeutic antibodies and reduced effectiveness of vaccines. This review highlights the features in SARS-CoV-2 structure and replication cycle that would help to understand the significance of individual mutations contained in the emerging genetic variants and to predict the impact of mutations on viral transmissibility, disease severity, diagnostics, therapeutics or immune escape. The main characteristics of the variants of concern are presented.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Prof. Neli Korsun, National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases

    National Laboratory “Influenza and ARD”

  • Ivelina Trifonova, National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases

    National Laboratory “Influenza and ARD”

  • Veselin Dobrinov, National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases

    National Laboratory “Influenza and ARD”

  • Iliyana Grigorova, National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases

    National Laboratory “Influenza and ARD”

  • Svetla Angelova, National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases

    National Laboratory “Influenza and ARD”

  • Assoc. prof. Ivaylo Alexiev, National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases

    NCL “HIV”, Department of Virology

References

Zhou P. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature, 2020, 579: 270-273. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7

Satarker S, Nampoothiri M. Structural Proteins in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2. Arch Med Res, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arcmed.2020.05.012

Al-Qaaneh AM, Alshammari T, Aldahhan R, Aldossary H, Alkhalifah ZA, Francis Borgio J. Genome composition and genetic characterization of SARS-CoV-2. Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021;28(3):1978-1989. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2020.12.053

Shamsi A, et al. Potential drug targets of SARS-CoV-2: From genomics to therapeutics. Int J Biol Macromol. 2021;177:1-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.02.071

Kadam SB, Sukhramani GS, Bishnoi P, Pable AA, Barvkar VT. SARS-CoV-2, the pandemic coronavirus: Molecular and structural insights. J Basic Microbiol. 2021;61(3):180-202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jobm.202000537

Pilley TS. Gene of the month: the 2019-nCoV/SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus spike protein. J Clin Pathol. 2020;73(7):366-369. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jclinpath-2020-206658

Duan L, Zheng Q, Zhang H, Niu Y, Lou Y, Wang H. The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein Biosynthesis, Structure, Function, and Antigenicity: Implications for the Design of Spike-Based Vaccine Immunogens. Front Immunol, 2020;11:576622. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.576622

Mittal A, Manjunath K, Ranjan RK, Kaushik S, Kumar S, Verma V. COVID-19 pandemic: Insights into structure, function, and hACE2 receptor recognition by SARS-CoV-2. PloS Pathog. 2020:16(8): e1008762. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1008762

Rehman H, Ahmad I. COVID-19: a wreak havoc across the globe. Arch Physiol Biochem. 2020;1-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13813455.2020.1797105

Coutard B, Valle C, de Lamballerie X, Canard B, Seidah NG, Decroly E. The spike glycoprotein of the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV contains a furin-like cleavage site absent in CoV of the same clade. Antiviral Res. 2020;176:104742. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2020.104742

Wang L, Xiang Y. Spike Glycoprotein-Mediated Entry of SARS Coronaviruses. Viruses. 2020,12(11):1289. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/v12111289

Hatmal MM, Alshaer W, Al-Hatamleh MAI, Hatmal M, Smadi O, Mutasem O. Taha MO et al. Comprehensive Structural and Molecular Comparison of Spike Proteins of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and Their Interactions with ACE2. Cells. 2020; 9(12):2638. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/cells9122638

Gómez CE, Perdiguero B, Esteban M. Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Impact in Global Vaccination Programs against SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Vaccines (Basel). 2021;9(3):243. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9030243

Guo S, Liu K, Zheng J. The Genetic Variant of SARS-CoV-2: would It Matter for Controlling the Devastating Pandemic? Int J Biol Sci. 2021;17(6):1476-1485. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7150/ijbs.59137

Davies NG, Abbott S, Barnard RC, et al. Estimated transmissibility and impact of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 in England. MedRXiv 2021.

Horby P, Huntley C, Davies N, Edmunds J, Ferguson N, Medley G, et al. NERVTAG: Note on B.1.1.7 Severity, 20 January 2021. 2021. Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, GOV, UK.

Boehm E, Kronig I, Neher RA, Eckerle I, Vetter P, Kaiser L, et al. Novel SARS-CoV-2 variants: the pandemics within the pandemic. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2021;S1198-743X(21)00262-7

Jia Z, Gong W. Will Mutations in the Spike Protein of SARS-CoV-2 Lead to the Failure of COVID-19 Vaccines? J Korean Med Sci. 2021;36(18):e124 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e124

Wang Z., Schmidt F., Weisblum Y., Muecksch F., Barnes C.O., Finkin S., Schaefer-Babajew D., Cipolla M., Gaebler C., Lieberman J.A. mRNA vaccine-elicited antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and circulating variants. Nature. 2021;592(7855):616-622. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03324-6

Li R, Liu J, Zhang H. The challenge of emerging SARS-CoV-2 mutants to vaccine development. J Genet Genomics. 2021 Apr 20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgg.2021.03.001

ECDC. Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617 variants in India and situation in the EU/EEA. 11 May, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85363-7

Downloads

Published

2022-02-25

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

(1)
Korsun, N.; Trifonova, I.; Dobrinov, V.; Grigorova, I.; Angelova, S.; Alexiev, I. SARS-COV-2: INSIGHT INTO THE EMERGING GENETIC VARIANTS: Mini Review. Probl Infect Parasit Dis 2022, 49 (3), 5-11. https://doi.org/10.58395/pipd.v49i3.73.

Most read articles by the same author(s)