National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, Foster Avenue, Mount Merrion, Blackrock, Co., Dublin, A94 X099, Ireland.
School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, University College Dublin (UCD), Belfield, Dublin 4, D04 V1W8, Ireland.
Glycobiology. 2023 Apr 19;33(3):188-202. doi: 10.1093/glycob/cwad007.
With the global spread of the corona virus disease-2019 pandemic, new spike variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continuously emerge due to increased possibility of virus adaptive amino acid mutations. However, the N-glycosylation profiles of different spike variants are yet to be explored extensively, although the spike protein is heavily glycosylated and surface glycans are well-established to play key roles in viral infection and immune response. Here, we investigated quantitatively the N-glycosylation profiles of seven major emerging spike variants including Original, Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), Kappa (B.1.671.1), Delta (B.1.671.2), and Omicron (B.1.1.529). The aim was to understand the changing pattern of N-glycan profiles in SARS-CoV-2 evolution in addition to the widely studied amino acid mutations. Different spike variants exhibit substantial variations in the relative abundance of different glycan peaks and subclasses, although no specific glycan species are exclusively present in or absent from any specific variant. Cluster analysis shows that the N-glycosylation profiles may hold the potential for SARS-CoV-2 spike variants classification. Alpha and Beta variants exhibit the closest similarity to the Original, and the Delta variant displays substantial similarity to Gamma and Kappa variants, while the Omicron variant is significantly different from its counterparts. We demonstrated that there is a quantifiable difference in N-glycosylation profiles among different spike variants. The current study and observations herein provide a valuable framework for quantitative N-glycosylation profiling of new emerging viral variants and give us a more comprehensive picture of COVID-19 evolution.
随着 2019 年冠状病毒病大流行在全球范围内的传播，由于病毒适应性氨基酸突变的可能性增加，严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）的新刺突变异不断出现。然而，尽管刺突蛋白高度糖基化，表面糖基已被证实在病毒感染和免疫反应中发挥关键作用，但不同刺突变异体的 N-糖基化谱尚未得到广泛探索。在这里，我们定量研究了包括原始株、阿尔法（B.1.1.7）、贝塔（B.1.351）、伽马（P.1）、卡帕（B.1.671.1）、德尔塔（B.1.671.2）和奥密克戎（B.1.1.529）在内的七种主要新兴刺突变异体的 N-糖基化谱。目的是了解 SARS-CoV-2 进化中 N-聚糖谱的变化模式，除了广泛研究的氨基酸突变。尽管没有特定的糖型专门存在于或不存在于任何特定的变异体中，但不同的刺突变异体在不同糖峰和子类的相对丰度上表现出显著差异。聚类分析表明，N-糖基化谱可能具有 SARS-CoV-2 刺突变异体分类的潜力。阿尔法和贝塔变异体与原始株最为相似，德尔塔变异体与伽马和卡帕变异体有很大的相似性，而奥密克戎变异体与其他变异体明显不同。我们证明了不同刺突变异体之间的 N-糖基化谱存在可量化的差异。本研究和观察结果为新出现的病毒变异体的定量 N-糖基化分析提供了有价值的框架，并使我们对 COVID-19 的进化有了更全面的了解。
