Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Cellular-Host Interaction of SARS-CoV-2 Gamma Variant

Aline Miranda Scovino
# ,
Elizabeth Chen Dahab
# ,
Israel Diniz-Lima
# ORCID logo ,
Etiele de Senna Silveira
ORCID logo ,
Shana Priscila Coutinho Barroso
,
Karina Martins-Cardoso
,
Dirlei Nico
,
Celio Geraldo Freire-de-Lima
ORCID logo ,
Leonardo Freire-de-Lima
ORCID logo ,
Natalia Valente
,
Valeria Nacife
,
Ana Machado
,
Mia Araújo
,
Gustavo Fioravanti Vieira
ORCID logo ,
Alex Pauvolid-Corrêa
,
Marilda Mendonça Siqueira
,
Alexandre Morrot
*
#
These authors contributed equally to the work.
Version 1 : Received: 12 July 2023 / Approved: 13 July 2023 / Online: 13 July 2023 (04:34:23 CEST)

How to cite: Scovino, A.M.; Dahab, E.C.; Diniz-Lima, I.; Silveira, E.D.S.; Barroso, S.P.C.; Martins-Cardoso, K.; Nico, D.; Freire-de-Lima, C.G.; Freire-de-Lima, L.; Valente, N.; Nacife, V.; Machado, A.; Araújo, M.; Vieira, G.F.; Pauvolid-Corrêa, A.; Siqueira, M.M.; Morrot, A. Cellular-Host Interaction of SARS-CoV-2 Gamma Variant. Preprints 2023, 2023070876. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.0876.v1 Scovino, A.M.; Dahab, E.C.; Diniz-Lima, I.; Silveira, E.D.S.; Barroso, S.P.C.; Martins-Cardoso, K.; Nico, D.; Freire-de-Lima, C.G.; Freire-de-Lima, L.; Valente, N.; Nacife, V.; Machado, A.; Araújo, M.; Vieira, G.F.; Pauvolid-Corrêa, A.; Siqueira, M.M.; Morrot, A. Cellular-Host Interaction of SARS-CoV-2 Gamma Variant. Preprints 2023, 2023070876. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202307.0876.v1

Abstract

Since the first description of SARS-CoV-2 in China in 2019, thousands of variants have emerged worldwide. For some of them, the constellation of mutations caused changes in virus biology, pathogenicity, infectivityity and transmissibility resulting in dissemination throughout the world. Gamma variant (P.1) differs from SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain (B.1) by 12 amino acids in the Spike (S) protein, and presented mutations related to greater affinity for the receptor angioten-sin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) and/or immune escape. The Gamma variant and subvariants were responsible for the second wave of COVID-19 in the Brazilian city of Manaus, characterized by high mortality and rapid transmission. The ability of variants to induce cytokine production may be closely related to their pathogenicity. Herein we observed that there was no significant difference in the quantity of cytokines among macrophages or neutrophils infected with P.1 and B.1 strains. Also, no significant difference was observed in the absolute number of macrophages and neutrophils infected with these variants. Furthermore, no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 replication was observed in macrophages when infected by the two analyzed variants. Our findings suggest that the difference in the epidemiological outcome observed during the P.1 variant spread when compared to B.1, it is not explained by differences in the quantity of cytokines and absolute number of macrophages or neutrophils. Through bioinformatics analysis of the S protein, we observed that the physicochemical differences between the variants and subvariants of P.1, probably refer to the degree of infectivity, due to the impact caused in the recognition of antibodies and receptor af-finity

Keywords

SARS-CoV-2; P.1 variant; B.1 strain; cytokines; COVID-19; macrophages; neutrophils

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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