The outbreak of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) represents a pandemic threat that has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. The CoV Spike Glycoprotein is a key target for vaccines, therapeutic antibodies, and diagnostics. The structure of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein 6M17 should enable the rapid development and evaluation of medical countermeasures to address the ongoing public health crisis.
Biologic Model of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein 3D printed and colored-coded to denote functional domains (NTD blue, RBD green, SD1, light tan, SD2 red-orange-yellow, FP cyan, RRAR brown, ACE2 Receptor pink). SCIENCE recently published the work of Daniel Wrapp crystalizing the current generation of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein, 2019-nCoV-2. Following the illustrations and supplemental materials describing each domain by amino acid sequence, a series of 3D models were generated for interactive exploration and 3D printing.
SCIENCE Image Gallery
Text and Illustrations from SCIENCE publication: “Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation.”
SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein
The membrane-bound configuration of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein (PDB ID: 6VXX, 6M17 seen below) is a trimer complex. At the top of each monomer is a receptor-binding domain (RBD green) that binds angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2 pink) with a higher affinity than it does severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS-Coronavirus ‘Classic’ (2002). This in part is due to the unique modifications in the RBD that replace binding motifs with residues from a Pangolin virus (Dark green). Additionally, several published SARS-CoV S RBD-specific monoclonal antibodies were tested and found that they do not have appreciable binding to SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that antibody cross-reactivity may be limited, in part due to changes to these residues (Dark Green). The structure of SARS-CoV-2 should enable the rapid development and evaluation of medical countermeasures to address the ongoing public health crisis.
Model Description
Biologic Model of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein bound to ACE2 Receptor 6VXX-6M17 3D printed in Full-color Sandstone or Multi-colored Plastic and colored to match “Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation” published recently in SCIENCE.
“The novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV has recently emerged as a human pathogen in the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province, causing fever, severe respiratory illness, and pneumonia—a disease recently named COVID-19 (1, 2). The emerging pathogen was rapidly characterized as a new member of the betacoronavirus genus, closely related to several bat coronaviruses and to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) (3, 4). Compared with SARS-CoV, 2019-nCoV appears to be more readily transmitted from human to human, spreading to multiple continents and leading to the WHO’s declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020 (1, 5, 6).”
