Lin Ming-Shiu, Chao Tai-Ling, Chou Yu-Chi, Yi Yao, Chen Ci-Ling, Huang Kuo-Yen, Chang Sui-Yuan, Yang Pan-Chyr
Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
J Biomed Sci. 2025 Jun 26;32(1):59. doi: 10.1186/s12929-025-01156-4.
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the world in 2025. The rapid mutation of SARS-CoV-2 results in breakthrough infections and diminishes the efficacy of vaccines and anti-viral drugs. The severity of the disease varies across different variants, and the underlying mechanisms driving these differences remain unclear. This study explores the relationship between different Spike variants and cytotoxicity, aiming to determine whether the humanized decoy receptor ACE2-Fc can neutralize spikes from diverse variants, offering a solution to overcome rapid mutating SARS-CoV-2 induced immune escape. METHODS: We co-cultured 293 T-ACE2 cells with 293 T cells transfected with various Spike protein variants or used H1650-ACE2 cells transfected with these Spike variants. This allowed us to observe the effects of different Spike mutations, specifically focusing on cell fusion, cytotoxicity, and cytokine release from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Flow cytometry is employed to determine if ACE2-Fc can recognize different Spike variants. We also assess the ability of ACE2-Fc to inhibit infection, cell fusion, cytotoxicity, and cytokine release through pseudovirus infections or Spike protein transfections. Additionally, we use actual viruses from SARS-CoV-2 patients to validate the impacts of Spike mutations and the effectiveness of ACE2-Fc. Furthermore, human plasma is utilized to evaluate ACE2-Fc's capability to inhibit Spike-induced clot formation. RESULTS: We found that different Spike variants, particularly those with enhancements at the S2' site, increased cell-cell fusion capability, which correlated positively with cytotoxicity and cytokine IL-6 and TNF-α released from PBMCs. ACE2-Fc recognized spikes from wide-range of variants, including wild type, Alpha, Delta, Delta plus, Lambda, BA.2, BA.2.75, BA.5, BF.7, BQ.1, XBB.1, JN.1, KP.2, and KP.3, and effectively prevented these spike-expressing pseudo-viruses from entering host cells. Crucially, ACE2-Fc can prevent spike-induced cell fusion, thereby reducing subsequent cytotoxicity and the release of IL-6 and TNF-α from PBMCs. ACE2-Fc also effectively reduces plasma clot formation induced by trimeric spike proteins. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrated that ACE2-Fc could effectively combat the infection of rapidly mutating SARS-CoV-2, providing a potential solution to overcome immune evasion.
背景:2025年,新冠疫情仍在影响着全球。严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2(SARS-CoV-2)的快速变异导致突破性感染,并降低了疫苗和抗病毒药物的疗效。不同变异株导致的疾病严重程度各不相同,但其背后的驱动机制仍不清楚。本研究探讨了不同刺突蛋白变异体与细胞毒性之间的关系,旨在确定人源化诱饵受体ACE2-Fc是否能够中和多种变异体的刺突蛋白,为克服SARS-CoV-2快速变异导致的免疫逃逸提供解决方案。 方法:我们将293T-ACE2细胞与转染了各种刺突蛋白变异体的293T细胞共培养,或使用转染了这些刺突蛋白变异体的H1650-ACE2细胞。这使我们能够观察不同刺突突变的影响,特别关注细胞融合、细胞毒性以及人外周血单个核细胞释放细胞因子的情况。采用流式细胞术来确定ACE2-Fc是否能够识别不同的刺突蛋白变异体。我们还通过假病毒感染或刺突蛋白转染来评估ACE2-Fc抑制感染、细胞融合、细胞毒性和细胞因子释放的能力。此外,我们使用来自SARS-CoV-2患者的实际病毒来验证刺突突变的影响以及ACE2-Fc的有效性。此外,利用人血浆来评估ACE2-Fc抑制刺突蛋白诱导的血凝块形成的能力。 结果:我们发现,不同的刺突蛋白变异体,特别是那些在S2'位点有增强的变异体,增加了细胞间融合能力,这与细胞毒性以及外周血单个核细胞释放的细胞因子白细胞介素-6(IL-6)和肿瘤坏死因子-α(TNF-α)呈正相关。ACE2-Fc能够识别多种变异体的刺突蛋白,包括野生型、阿尔法、德尔塔、德尔塔plus、拉姆达、BA.2、BA.2.75、BA.5、BF.7、BQ.1、XBB.1、JN.1、KP.2和KP.3,并有效阻止这些表达刺突蛋白的假病毒进入宿主细胞。至关重要的是,ACE2-Fc能够防止刺突蛋白诱导的细胞融合,从而降低随后的细胞毒性以及外周血单个核细胞释放IL-6和TNF-α。ACE2-Fc还能有效减少三聚体刺突蛋白诱导的血浆血凝块形成。 结论:这些发现表明,ACE2-Fc能够有效对抗快速变异的SARS-CoV-2感染,为克服免疫逃逸提供了一种潜在的解决方案。
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