Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec;18(12):2673-2675.
doi: 10.1038/s41423-021-00779-5. Epub 2021 Oct 25.

The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 variant A.30 is heavily mutated and evades vaccine-induced antibodies with high efficiency

Prerna Arora  1   2 , Cheila Rocha  1   2 , Amy Kempf  1   2 , Inga Nehlmeier  1 , Luise Graichen  1   2 , Martin S Winkler  3 , Martin Lier  3 , Sebastian Schulz  4 , Hans-Martin Jäck  4 , Anne Cossmann  5 , Metodi V Stankov  5 , Georg M N Behrens  5 , Stefan Pöhlmann  6   7 , Markus Hoffmann  8   9
Affiliations

The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 variant A.30 is heavily mutated and evades vaccine-induced antibodies with high efficiency

Prerna Arora et al. Cell Mol Immunol. 2021 Dec.
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
SARS-CoV-2 A.30 enters certain cell lines with increased efficiency and evades antibody-mediated neutralization. a Schematic overview and domain organization of the SARS-CoV-2 S proteins studied. Abbreviations: RBD, receptor-binding domain; TD, transmembrane domain. b Pseudotyped particles bearing the indicated S proteins were inoculated onto different cell lines, and transduction efficiency was quantified by measuring virus-encoded luciferase activity in cell lysates at 16–18 h postinoculation. Presented are the average (mean) data from six to 12 biological replicates (each conducted with technical quadruplicates) for which transduction was normalized against SARS-CoV-2 S B.1 (= 1). Error bars indicate the standard error of the mean (SEM). The statistical significance of differences between B.1 and A.30, B.1.525, or B.1.351 was analyzed by two-tailed Student’s t-test with Welch correction (p > 0.05, not significant [ns]; p ≤ 0.05, *; p ≤ 0.01, **; p ≤ 0.001, ***). See also Supplemental information, Fig. S1b. c Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 B.1, A.30, B.1.525, and B.1.351 by monoclonal antibodies used for COVID-19 therapy or an unrelated control antibody (Supplemental information, Fig. S1d). Pseudotyped particles were incubated for 30 min at 37 °C in the presence of increasing concentrations (0.00002, 0.0002, 0.002, 0.02, 0.2, 2 µg/ml) of the indicated monoclonal antibodies or an unrelated control antibody before being inoculated onto Vero cells. Infection efficiency was quantified by measuring virus-encoded luciferase activity in cell lysates at 16–18 h postinoculation. Presented are average (mean) data from a single biological replicate (conducted with technical quadruplicates) for which infection was normalized against samples that did not contain antibody (= 0% inhibition). The data were confirmed in a separate independent experiment. Error bars indicate the standard deviation. d Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 B.1, A.30, B.1.525, and B.1.351 by antibodies in convalescent plasma. Pseudotyped particles bearing the indicated S proteins were incubated for 30 min in the presence of different dilutions of convalescent plasma (n = 9). Infection efficiency was determined as described for Fig. 1b and used to calculate the plasma dilution factor leading to a 50% reduction in S protein-driven cell entry (neutralizing titer 50, NT50). Data from a total of nine convalescent plasma samples are presented (black lines and numerical values indicate the median NT50). In addition, for each plasma, the fold reduction in NT50 between SARS-CoV-2 B.1 (set as 1) and the indicated variants was calculated (gray bars indicate the median). The statistical significance of differences between the indicated groups was analyzed by a two-tailed Mann–Whitney test with a 95% confidence level (p > 0.05, ns; p ≤ 0.05, *; p ≤ 0.01, **; p ≤ 0.001, ***). e The experiment was performed as described in Panel d, but serum from ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZ/AZ; n = 23), BNT162b2/BNT162b2 (BNT/BNT; n = 12) or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/BNT162b2 (AZ/BNT; n = 6)-vaccinated individuals was investigated. Numbers in the bar graphs “B.1 vs. A.30” and “B.1 vs. B.1.525” indicate the number of overlapping data points (dots)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Harvey WT, Carabelli AM, Jackson B, Gupta RK, Thomson EC, Harrison EM, et al. SARS-CoV-2 variants, spike mutations and immune escape. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2021;19:409–24. doi: 10.1038/s41579-021-00573-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. COV-Lineages.org. Lineage A.30, https://cov-lineages.org/lineage.html?lineage=A.30 (2021).
    1. Hoffmann M, Arora P, Groß R, Seidel A, Hörnich BF, Hahn AS, et al. SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.351 and P.1 escape from neutralizing antibodies. Cell. 2021;184:2384–93. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.036. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wibmer CK, Ayres F, Hermanus T, Madzivhandila M, Kgagudi P, Oosthuysen B, et al. SARS-CoV-2 501Y.V2 escapes neutralization by South African COVID-19 donor plasma. Nat Med. 2021;27:622–5. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01285-x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. McCallum M, De Marco A, Lempp FA, Tortorici MA, Pinto D, Walls AC, et al. N-terminal domain antigenic mapping reveals a site of vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2. Cell. 2021;184:2332–47. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.028. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Supplementary concepts