Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virol. May 25, 2022; 11(3): 144-149
Published online May 25, 2022. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v11.i3.144
Omicron variant and change of electrostatic interactions between receptor binding domain of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor
Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip, Viroj Wiwanitkit
Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip, Consultant, Private Consultant, Bangkok 102002022, Thailand
Viroj Wiwanitkit, Department of Community Medicine, Dr. DY Patil University, Pune 310330, India
Author contributions: Mungmunpuntipantip R and Wiwanitkit V contributed to study conception and design, acquisition of data, and analysis and interpretation of data; Mungmunpuntipantip R drafted the article, revised it critically for important intellectual content, and approved the version of the article to be published
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip, PhD, Academic Research, Additional Professor, Consultant, Private Consultant, Bangkok 102002022, Thailand. rujittika@gmail.com
Received: December 16, 2021
Peer-review started: December 16, 2021
First decision: February 21, 2022
Revised: February 21, 2022
Accepted: April 26, 2022
Article in press: April 26, 2022
Published online: May 25, 2022
Processing time: 154 Days and 11.4 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

According to this study, each investigated variant altered the electrostatic interactions between the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) receptor binding domain and the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. The omicron variant showed the biggest alteration, followed by the delta and beta variants. This finding could back up the clinical observation that the omicron variant is more transmissible than the wild type and other SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Research motivation

Each studied variant affected the electrostatic interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain and the ACE2 receptor. The omicron form, followed by the delta and beta variants, displays the most change. This could support the clinical finding that the omicron variant is more contagious than the wild type and other SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Research objectives

The authors conducted a study to see how mutations are associated with alterations of electrostatic interactions between receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 with the ACE2 receptor.

Research methods

The researchers investigated how mutations affect electrostatic interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain and the ACE2 receptor. In this report, three important coronavirus disease 2019 variants, beta, delta, and omicron, were investigated.

Research results

There was a change of electrostatic interactions between the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 with the ACE2 receptor due to each studied variant compared to wild type. The most change was detected for the omicron variant, followed by delta variant and beta variant.

Research conclusions

Our findings can support the clinical observation that the omicron variant has an increased transmissibility comparable to the wild type and other variants.

Research perspectives

Our findings are consistent with the clinical observation that the omicron variation is more transmissible than the wild type and other variants.