Scientists Explain How Virulent Coronavirus Gets Neutralized by Angela Mohan on April 19, 2021 at 12:15 PM
How a highly infectious variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus binds to the host has been revealed by scientists.
Large-scale supercomputer simulations at the atomic level showed that the dominant G form variant of the virus is more infectious due to its greater ability to readily bind to its target host receptor in the body, compared to other variants.
The results from a Los Alamos National Laboratory-led team in the US illuminate the mechanism of both infection by the G form and antibody resistance against it. We found that the interactions among the basic building blocks of the Spike protein becomes more symmetrical in the G form, and that gives it more opportunities to bind to the receptors in the host in us, said Gnana Gnanakaran, corresponding author of the paper published in Science Advances.