2023/03/19 by Dominic W. Hayward, Purushottam S Dubey, Hayward, Dominic +25
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Medicine · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior #Medical Physics (physics.med-ph) #SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2303.10746
openalex publication_date 2023/03/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
In this manuscript we describe the investigation of the SARS-CoV2 membrane fusion timescale by means of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) using hydrogen/deuterium contrast variation. After the successful production of virus-like vesicles and human-host-cell-like vesicles we were able to follow the fusion of the respective vesicles in real-time. This was done using deuterated and protonated phospholipids in the vesicles in a neutron-contrast matched solvent. The vesicles were identical apart from either the presence or absence of the SARS-CoV2 spike protein. The human-host-cell-like vesicles were carrying an ACE2 receptor protein in all cases. In case of the absence of the spike protein a fusion over several hours was observed in agreement with literature, with a time constant of 4.5 h. In comparison, there was not time-evolution, but immediate fusion of the vesicles when the spike protein was present. Those two figures, fusion over several hours and fusion below 10 s corresponding to the absence or presence of the spike protein allow an upper-limit estimate for the fusion times of virus-like vesicles with the SARS-CoV2 spike protein of 10 s. This very fast fusion, when compared to the case without spike protein it is a factor of 2500, can also help to explain why infection with SARS-CoV2 can be so effective and fast. Studying spike protein variants using our method may explain differences in transmissibility between SARS-CoV2 strains. In addition, the model developed here can potentially be applied to any enveloped virus.