Imperial College London
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ProfessorWendyBarclay

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Disease

Action Medical Research Chair Virology. Head of Department
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 5035w.barclay

 
 
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Location

 

416Medical SchoolSt Mary's Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Peacock:2021:10.1101/2021.05.28.446163,
author = {Peacock, TP and Sheppard, CM and Brown, JC and Goonawardane, N and Zhou, J and Whiteley, M and de, Silva TI and Barclay, WS},
doi = {10.1101/2021.05.28.446163},
title = {The SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with infections in India, B.1.617, show enhanced spike cleavage by furin},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.28.446163},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The spike (S) glycoprotein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that emerged in 2019 contained a suboptimal furin cleavage site at the S1/S2 junction with the sequence <jats:sub>681</jats:sub>P<jats:bold>RR</jats:bold>A<jats:bold>R</jats:bold>/S<jats:sub>686</jats:sub>. This cleavage site is required for efficient airway replication, transmission, and pathogenicity of the virus. The B.1.617 lineage has recently emerged in India, coinciding with substantial disease burden across the country. Early evidence suggests that B.1.617.2 (a sublineage of B.1.617) is more highly transmissible than contemporary lineages. B.1.617 and its sublineages contain a constellation of S mutations including the substitution P681R predicted to further optimise this furin cleavage site. We provide experimental evidence that virus of the B.1.617 lineage has enhanced S cleavage, that enhanced processing of an expressed B.1.617 S protein in cells is due to P681R, and that this mutation enables more efficient cleavage of a peptide mimetic of the B.1.617 S1/S2 cleavage site by recombinant furin. Together, these data demonstrate viruses in this emerging lineage have enhanced S cleavage by furin which we hypothesise could be enhancing transmissibility and pathogenicity.</jats:p>
AU  - Peacock,TP
AU  - Sheppard,CM
AU  - Brown,JC
AU  - Goonawardane,N
AU  - Zhou,J
AU  - Whiteley,M
AU  - de,Silva TI
AU  - Barclay,WS
DO  - 10.1101/2021.05.28.446163
PY  - 2021///
TI  - The SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with infections in India, B.1.617, show enhanced spike cleavage by furin
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.28.446163
ER  -
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