Biology subjects

Neuman, B.

Publications and source records attributed to Neuman, B..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Respiratory shedding of infectious SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.41.1 lineage with increased evolutionary rate among captive white-tailed deer

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have high value for research, conservation, agriculture and recreation, and may be important SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs with unknown human health implications. In November 2023, we sampled 15 female deer in a captive facility in central Texas, USA. All individuals had neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and 11 had RT-qPCR-positive respiratory swabs; one also had a positive rectal swab. Six of 11 respiratory swabs yielded infectious virus with replication kinetics of most samples displaying lower growth 24-48 h post infection in vitro when compared to Omicron lineages isolated from humans in Texas in the same period. However, virus growth was similar between groups by 72 h, suggesting no strong attenuation of deer-derived virus. All deer viruses clustered in XBB Omicron clade, with more mutations than expected compared to contemporaneous viruses in humans, suggesting that crossing the species barrier to deer was accompanied by a high substitution rate.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2023

An Azapeptide Platform in Conjunction with Covalent Warheads to Uncover High-Potency Inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease

Main protease (MPro) of SARS-CoV-2, the viral pathogen of COVID-19, is a crucial nonstructural protein that plays a vital role in the replication and pathogenesis of the virus. Its protease function relies on three active site pockets to recognize P1, P2, and P4 amino acid residues in a substrate and a catalytic cysteine residue for catalysis. By converting the P1 C atom in an MPro substrate to nitrogen, we showed that a large variety of azapeptide inhibitors with covalent warheads targeting the MPro catalytic cysteine could be easily synthesized. Through the characterization of these inhibitors, we identified several highly potent MPro inhibitors. Specifically, one inhibitor, MPI89 that contained an aza-2,2-dichloroacetyl warhead, displayed a 10 nM EC50 value in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 from infecting ACE2+ A549 cells and a selectivity index of 875. The crystallography analyses of MPro bound with 6 inhibitors, including MPI89, revealed that inhibitors used their covalent warheads to covalently engage the catalytic cysteine and the aza-amide carbonyl oxygen to bind to the oxyanion hole. MPI89 represents one of the most potent MPro inhibitors developed so far, suggesting that further exploration of the azapeptide platform and the aza-2,2-dichloroacetyl warhead is needed for the development of potent inhibitors for the SARS-CoV-2 MPro as therapeutics for COVID-19.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2017

Translated Blast of L Polymerase as a Hit for Novel Arenaviruses Species

Many pathogenic viruses can transmit between human and animals as zoonotic viruses and cause dangerous diseases with obvious clinical signs globally. However, the world deals seriously with these viruses when the viruses infected either human or animals especially if the infection were confirmed that classified as zoonotic (Lal et al. 2005). There are many viruses distribution in many countries around the world including Ebolavirus, Marburgvirus, SARS and MERS coronaviruses, Hendra, Nipah and arenavirus haemorrhagic fever viruses were categorized as zoonotic RNA viruses that cause epidemic in some regions such as African countries (Fichet-Calvet & Rogers 2009) (Ehichioya et al. 2010). Consequently, structural bioinformatics of virus protein like L polymerase of arenaviruses was used for monitor the future outbreak that could be happens by new species of viruses. At this research, significant similarities with hemorrhagic fever viruses including arenaviruses were found on GenBank database. Translated blast (tBLASTn) available on https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi was used for searching translated nucleotide databases using a protein query of arenavirus L polymerase (McGinnis & Madden 2004). At this research, the new and archival metazoan transcriptome sequence data of the new TSA species that available on NCBI was used for identification with arenaviruses genes. Therefore, structure bioinformatics was utilized for better understanding and predication the evolution and natural history of the pools of uncharacterized virus on Genbank database that have led to emerging haemorrhagic fever in near future around the world.

microbiology↗