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. 2021 Dec 16:11:792202.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.792202. eCollection 2021.

Earlier In Vitro Viral Production With SARS-CoV-2 Alpha Than With Beta, Gamma, B, or A.27 Variants

Samuel Lebourgeois  1 , Houssem Redha Chenane  1 , Nadhira Houhou-Fidouh  2 , Reyene Menidjel  1 , Valentine Marie Ferré  1   2 , Gilles Collin  1   2 , Nabil Benmalek  2 , Romain Coppée  1 , Lucile Larrouy  1   2 , Yazdan Yazdanpanah  1   3 , Jean-François Timsit  1   4 , Charlotte Charpentier  1   2 , Diane Descamps  1   2 , Benoit Visseaux  1   2
Affiliations

Earlier In Vitro Viral Production With SARS-CoV-2 Alpha Than With Beta, Gamma, B, or A.27 Variants

Samuel Lebourgeois et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

Since its emergence in China at the end of 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has rapidly spread across the world to become a global public health emergency. Since then, the pandemic has evolved with the large worldwide emergence of new variants, such as the Alpha (B.1.1.7 variant), Beta (B.1.351 variant), and Gamma (P.1 variant), and some other under investigation such as the A.27 in France. Many studies are focusing on antibody neutralisation changes according to the spike mutations, but to date, little is known regarding their respective replication capacities. In this work, we demonstrate that the Alpha variant provides an earlier replication in vitro, on Vero E6 and A549 cells, than Beta, Gamma, A.27, and historical lineages. This earlier replication was associated with higher infectious titres in cell-culture supernatants, in line with the higher viral loads observed among Alpha-infected patients. Interestingly, Beta and Gamma variants presented similar kinetic and viral load than the other non-Alpha-tested variants.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; alpha; infectious titres; replication cycle; variants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Evaluation of infectious viral particle production kinetics for tested viral variants. The infectious titers, determined by plaque assay on (A) Vero E6 and (B) A549 cell lines, are indicated on a logarithmic scale. The Alpha variant is indicated in green, the Beta in blue, the Gamma in purple, the A.27 in khaki and the B strain in red. For Alpha and Beta, two strains were tested and are identified by the dot triangle or circle shapes. Each strain was tested by two independent replicates.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Viral replication assessment in culture supernatant and intracellular fraction. The Alpha variant is indicated in green (n=6), the Beta in blue (n=6), the Gamma in purple (n=3), the A27 in khaki (n=3) and the B. strain in red (n=3). For Alpha and Beta, two strains were tested and are identified by the dot triangle or circle shapes. With the exception of the N antigen in culture supernatant, all data were plotted on logarithmic scales.
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