Coronacept - a potent immunoadhesin against SARS-CoV-2

Cohen-Dvashi, H.; Weinstein, J.; Katz, M.; Eilon, M.; Mor, Y.; Shimon, A.; Strobelt, R.; Shemesh, M.; Fleishman, S. J.; Diskin, R.

doi:10.1101/2020.08.12.247940

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.08.12.247940

Coronacept - a potent immunoadhesin against SARS-CoV-2

Cohen-Dvashi, H.·Weinstein, J.·Katz, M.·Eilon, M.·Mor, Y.·Shimon, A.·Strobelt, R.·Shemesh, M.·Fleishman, S. J.·Diskin, R.

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Abstract

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the cellular receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Computational analysis of mammalian ACE2 orthologues suggests various residues at the interface with the viral receptor binding domain that could facilitate tighter interaction compared to the human-ACE2. Introducing several mutations to the human-ACE2 resulted with significantly augmented affinity to the viral spike complex. This modified human-ACE2 fused to an Fc portion of an antibody makes a potent immunoadhesin that effectively targets SARS-CoV-2.

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Cohen-Dvashi, H., Weinstein, J., Katz, M., Eilon, M., Mor, Y., Shimon, A., Strobelt, R., Shemesh, M., Fleishman, S. J., Diskin, R.. 2020-08-12. Coronacept - a potent immunoadhesin against SARS-CoV-2. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.12.247940

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