The spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2: A review of how mutations of spike glycoproteins have driven the emergence of variants with high transmissibility and immune escape

Abstract

Late in 2019, SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) emerged, causing an unknown type of pneumonia today called coronaviruses disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 is still an ongoing global outbreak that has claimed and threatened many lives worldwide. Along with the fastest vaccine developed in history to fight SARS-CoV-2 came a critical problem, SARS-CoV-2. These new variants are a result of the accumulation of mutations in the sequence and structure of spike (S) glycoprotein, which is by far the most critical protein for SARS-CoV-2 to recognize cells and escape the immune system, in addition to playing a role in SARS-CoV-2 infection, pathogenicity, transmission, and evolution. In this review, we discuss mutation of S protein and how these mutations have led to new variants that are usually more transmissible and can thus mitigate the immunity produced by vaccination. Here, analysis of S protein sequences and structures from variants point out the mutations among them, how they emerge, and the behavior of S protein from each variant. This review brings details in an understandable way about how the variants of SARS-CoV-2 are a result of mutations in S protein, making them more transmissible and even more aggressive than their relatives.

Keywords: Coronaviruses; Mutations; RBD; SARS-CoV-2; Spike proteins.