AUTHOR=Ford Colby T. , Yasa Shirish , Jacob Machado Denis , White Richard Allen , Janies Daniel A. 

TITLE=Predicting changes in neutralizing antibody activity for SARS-CoV-2 XBB.1.5 using in silico protein modeling

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Virology

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virology/articles/10.3389/fviro.2023.1172027

DOI=10.3389/fviro.2023.1172027

ISSN=2673-818X

ABSTRACT=<p>The SARS-CoV-2 variant XBB.1.5 is of concern as it has high transmissibility. XBB.1.5 currently accounts for upwards of 30% of new infections in the United States. One year after our group published the predicted structure of the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant’s receptor binding domain (RBD) and antibody binding affinity, we return to investigate the new mutations seen in XBB.1.5 which is a descendant of Omicron. Using <italic>in silico</italic> modeling approaches against newer neutralizing antibodies that are shown effective against B.1.1.529, we predict the immune consequences of XBB.1.5’s mutations and show that there is no statistically significant difference in overall antibody evasion when comparing to the B.1.1.529 and other related variants (e.g., BJ.1 andBM.1.1.1). However, noticeable changes in antibody binding affinity were seen due to specific amino acid changes of interest in the newer variants.</p>