Mechanisms of Zoonotic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Host Range Expansion in Human Airway Epithelium

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Creator
  • Sheahan, Timothy
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
  • Rockx, Barry
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
  • Donaldson, Eric
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
  • Sims, Amy
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
  • Pickles, Raymond
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
  • Corti, Davide
    • Other Affiliation: Institute for Research in Biomedicine
  • Baric, Ralph
    • Affiliation: School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Abstract
  • In 2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) emerged and caused over 8,000 human cases of infection and more than 700 deaths worldwide. Zoonotic SARS-CoV likely evolved to infect humans by a series of transmission events between humans and animals for sale in China. Using synthetic biology, we engineered the spike protein (S) from a civet strain, SZ16, into our epidemic strain infectious clone, creating the chimeric virus icSZ16-S, which was infectious but yielded progeny viruses incapable of propagating in vitro. After introducing a K479N mutation within the S receptor binding domain (RBD) of SZ16, the recombinant virus (icSZ16-S K479N) replicated in Vero cells but was severely debilitated in growth. The in vitro evolution of icSZ16-S K479N on human airway epithelial (HAE) cells produced two viruses (icSZ16-S K479N D8 and D22) with enhanced growth on HAE cells and on delayed brain tumor cells expressing the SARS-CoV receptor, human angiotensin I converting enzyme 2 (hACE2). The icSZ16-S K479N D8 and D22 virus RBDs contained mutations in ACE2 contact residues, Y442F and L472F, that remodeled S interactions with hACE2. Further, these viruses were neutralized by a human monoclonal antibody (MAb), S230.15, but the parent icSZ16-S K479N strain was eight times more resistant than the mutants. These data suggest that the human adaptation of zoonotic SARS-CoV strains may select for some variants that are highly susceptible to select MAbs that bind to RBDs. The epidemic, icSZ16-S K479N, and icSZ16-S K479N D22 viruses replicate similarly in the BALB/c mouse lung, highlighting the potential use of these zoonotic spike SARS-CoVs to assess vaccine or serotherapy efficacy in vivo.
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  • Article
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  • In Copyright
Journal title
  • Journal of Virology
Journal volume
  • 82
Journal issue
  • 5
Page start
  • 2274
Page end
  • 2285
Language
  • English
ISSN
  • 0022-538X

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