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. 2020 Dec:24:100798.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2020.100798. Epub 2020 Aug 20.

ACE2 coding variants in different populations and their potential impact on SARS-CoV-2 binding affinity

Fedaa Ali  1 , Menattallah Elserafy  2 , Mohamed H Alkordi  3 , Muhamed Amin  1   4   5
Affiliations

ACE2 coding variants in different populations and their potential impact on SARS-CoV-2 binding affinity

Fedaa Ali et al. Biochem Biophys Rep. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

The susceptibility of different populations to SARS-CoV-2 infection is not yet understood. Here, we combined ACE2 coding variants' analysis in different populations and computational chemistry calculations to probe the effects on SARS-CoV-2/ACE2 interaction. ACE2-K26R; which is most frequent in Ashkenazi Jewish population decreased the SARS-CoV-2/ACE2 electrostatic attraction. On the contrary, ACE2-I468V, R219C, K341R, D206G, G211R increased the electrostatic attraction; ordered by binding strength from weakest to strongest. The aforementioned variants are most frequent in East Asian, South Asian, African and African American, European, European and South Asian populations, respectively.

Keywords: ACE2 variants; Populations; SARS-CoV-2 binding; Single nucleotide variants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The secondary structure of the ACE2 protein (shown in orange) and the RBD of the SARS-CoV-2 (shown in blue). The mutated amino acids are shown in magenta spheres (6M17)5.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The impact of ACE2 coding variants on SARS-CoV-2 binding A) Representation of Binding energies calculated and the corresponding population with the highest allele frequency. B) Graphical representation of (A).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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