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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused a global pandemic. Intermediate horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus affinis) are hosts of RaTG13, the second most phylogenetically related viruses to SARS-CoV-2. We report the binding between intermediate horseshoe bat ACE2 (bACE2-Ra) and SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD), supporting the pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 viral infection. A 3.3 A resolution crystal structure of the bACE2-Ra/SARS-CoV-2 RBD complex was determined. The interaction networks of Patch 1 showed differences in R34 and E35 of bACE2-Ra compared to hACE2 and big-eared horseshoe bat ACE2 (bACE2-Rm). The E35K substitution, existing in other species, significantly enhanced the binding affinity owing to its electrostatic attraction with E484 of SARS-CoV-2 RBD. Furthermore, bACE2-Ra showed extensive support for the SARS-CoV-2 variants. These results broaden our knowledge of the ACE2/RBD interaction mechanism and emphasize the importance of continued surveillance of intermediate horseshoe bats to prevent spillover risk.

Structural basis of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants binding to intermediate horseshoe bat ACE2.,Tang L, Zhang D, Han P, Kang X, Zheng A, Xu Z, Zhao X, Wang VY, Qi J, Wang Q, Liu K, Gao GF Int J Biol Sci. 2022 Jul 11;18(12):4658-4668. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.73640. , eCollection 2022. PMID:35874946^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.