Poster Presentation The 47th Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function 2022

nsSNPs in the ACE2 receptor: Analysis of polymorphisms in Asian, European and African populations (#240)

Alejandro A Gutiérrez-Hernández 1 , Jorge Ayala-Lujan 1 , Marisa Hernández-Barrales 1
  1. Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico

In the year 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China. Research and molecular docking assays confirmed that angiotensin II-converting enzyme (ACE2) is the receptor with which the Spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 interacts to enter into the human cell. The virus spread rapidly around the world, causing a global outbreak of COVID-19 disease. The populations of Asia, Europe, and Africa were the first to be alerted to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak; they are the 3 most populated continents in the world and together cover more than 80% of the world's population. These three continents have reported the highest number of deaths and infections since the beginning of the pandemic. The exhaustive investigation of this virus has suggested a response whereby some populations are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 virus entry and this may be due to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the ACE2 receptor. This study is based on a bioinformatics approach, we determined the binding energy of nsSNPs present in the peptidase domain (PD) of ACE2 forming the protein-protein complex with RBD from SARS-CoV-2 by docking analysis. In our results, the Asp355Asn and Ser19Pro variants present in the European and African populations, present a decreased binding affinity in the ACE2-RBD complex, which could destabilize the binding of the complex. On the other hand, the Gly326Glu variant present in the African population increased the binding affinity in the protein-protein complex.