ArticleScientific reports2021
In silico comparison of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-ACE2 binding affinities across species and implications for virus origin.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 60 papers.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Development and Application of a Pseudovirus-Based Assay for Modelling SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Mediated Drug Screening.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Epidemiological indicators of accidental laboratory-origin outbreaks.Epidemiology and infection · 2026Review
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- Guinea Pigs Are Not a Suitable Model to Study Neurological Impacts of Ancestral SARS-CoV-2 Intranasal Infection.Viruses · 2025Article
- Clinical development of SpikoGen®, an Advax-CpG55.2 adjuvanted recombinant spike protein vaccine.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2024Review
- COVID-19 and Bone Loss: A Review of Risk Factors, Mechanisms, and Future Directions.Current osteoporosis reports · 2024Review
- SARS-CoV-2 and its Multifaceted Impact on Bone Health: Mechanisms and Clinical Evidence.Current osteoporosis reports · 2024Review
- SARS-CoV-2S-Protein-Ace2 Binding Analysis Using Surface Plasmon Resonance.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Computational design and investigation of the monomeric spike SARS-CoV-2-ferritin nanocage vaccine stability and interactions.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2024Article
- Human cytokine and coronavirus nucleocapsid protein interactivity using large-scale virtual screens.Frontiers in bioinformatics · 2024Article
- Low level of tonic interferon signalling is associated with enhanced susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in human lung organoids.Emerging microbes & infections · 2023Article
- Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in Domestics and Exotic Animals in Southern France.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2023Article
- Implications of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein interactions with Zn-bound form of ACE2: a computational structural study.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2023Article
- A cross-sectional serosurvey of SARS-CoV-2 and co-infections in stray cats from the second wave to the sixth wave of COVID-19 outbreaks in Spain.Veterinary research communications · 2023Article
- A SARS-CoV-2: Companion Animal Transmission and Variants Classification.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Zebrafish-based platform for emerging bio-contaminants and virus inactivation research.The Science of the total environment · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has raised important questions about its origins and the mechanism of its transfer to humans. A further question was whether companion or commercial animals could act as SARS-CoV-2 vectors, with early data suggesting susceptibility is species specific. To better understand SARS-CoV-2 species susceptibility, we undertook an in silico structural homology modelling, protein-protein docking, and molecular dynamics simulation study of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein's ability to bind angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) from relevant species. Spike protein exhibited the highest binding to human (h)ACE2 of all the species tested, forming the highest number of hydrogen bonds with hACE2. Interestingly, pangolin ACE2 showed the next highest binding affinity despite having a relatively low sequence homology, whereas the affinity of monkey ACE2 was much lower despite its high sequence similarity to hACE2. These differences highlight the power of a structural versus a sequence-based approach to cross-species analyses. ACE2 species in the upper half of the predicted affinity range (monkey, hamster, dog, ferret, cat) have been shown to be permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection, supporting a correlation between binding affinity and infection susceptibility. These findings show that the earliest known SARS-CoV-2 isolates were surprisingly well adapted to bind strongly to human ACE2, helping explain its efficient human to human respiratory transmission. This study highlights how in silico structural modelling methods can be used to rapidly generate information on novel viruses to help predict their behaviour and aid in countermeasure development.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.