Force-tuned avidity of spike variant-ACE2 interactions viewed on the single-molecule level
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Recent waves of COVID-19 correlate with the emergence of the Delta and the Omicron variant. We report that the Spike trimer acts as a highly dynamic molecular caliper, thereby forming up to three tight bonds through its RBDs with ACE2 expressed on the cell surface. The Spike of both Delta and Omicron (B.1.1.529) Variant enhance and markedly prolong viral attachment to the host cell receptor ACE2, as opposed to the early Wuhan-1 isolate. Delta Spike shows rapid binding of all three Spike RBDs to three different ACE2 molecules with considerably increased bond lifetime when compared to the reference strain, thereby significantly amplifying avidity. Intriguingly, Omicron (B.1.1.529) Spike displays less multivalent bindings to ACE2 molecules, yet with a ten time longer bond lifetime than Delta. Delta and Omicron (B.1.1.529) Spike variants enhance and prolong viral attachment to the host, which likely not only increases the rate of viral uptake, but also enhances the resistance of the variants against host-cell detachment by shear forces such as airflow, mucus or blood flow. We uncover distinct binding mechanisms and strategies at single-molecule resolution, employed by circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants to enhance infectivity and viral transmission.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".