新型冠状病毒刺突蛋白变异研究进展

Progress of Research on Variation of Spike Protein of SARS-CoV-2

新型冠状病毒(简称新冠病毒,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2,SARS-CoV-2)从发现到现在已流行4年,新冠病毒感染不但造成人类健康问题,也给公共卫生和医疗系统造成了严重负担,社会影响深刻。早期研发的新冠病毒疫苗非常有效,然而,随着新冠病毒在人群间不断流行,新冠病毒在不停地快速演变,在过去三年中,多种新冠病毒变种同时在全球范围传播交替流行。如今,新兴的新冠病毒奥密克戎(Omicron)谱系通过点突变和重组突变正在快速产生替代品,从而逃脱针对新冠病毒的中和抗体。刺突(Spike)蛋白作为主要诱导新冠病毒中和抗体的抗原,对其变异进化特征的绘制及生物学特性研究,不但有助于我们理解新冠病毒抗原是如何进化,也能为不同新冠病毒变异谱系是否发生免疫逃逸进行评估与预测。将重点关注新冠病毒刺突蛋白的进化变异及其改变后带来的生物学特性的改变。

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)has been circulating for more than four years since its discovery.Infection in SARS-CoV-2 may cause human health problems,taking serious burden to the public health and medical systems,and having significant social impacts.The SARS-CoV-2vaccines that were developed early were very effective.However,as the SARS-CoV-2 spread among people,the virus evolved constantly and rapidly.In the past three years,multiple variants have simultaneously spread around the world.Today,the emerging Omicron lineage of COVID-19 is rapidly producing substitutes through point mutations and recombination that evade neutralizing antibodies against COVID-19.The spike protein is an antigen that mainly induces the production of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.Mapping its mutation characteristics and studying its biological characteristics will not only help us understand how the virus antigen evolves,but also evaluate and predict whether immune escape occurs in different SARS-CoV-2variation lineages.In this review,we will focus on the evolutionary variations of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and subsequent changes in its biological characteristics.