Quantum Chemical Computation of Omicron Mutations Near Cleavage Sites of the Spike Protein

Abstract

The attachment of the spike protein in SARS-CoV-2 to host cells and the initiation of viral invasion are two critical processes in the viral infection and transmission in which the presence of unique furin (S1/S2) and TMPRSS2 (S2′) cleavage sites play a pivotal role. We provide a detailed analysis of the impact of the BA.1 Omicron mutations vicinal to these cleavage sites using a novel computational method based on the amino acid–amino acid bond pair unit (AABPU), a specific protein structural unit as a proxy for quantifying the atomic interaction. Our study is focused mainly on the spike region between subdomain 2 (SD2) and the central helix (CH), which contains both S1/S2 and S2’ cleavage sites. Based on ab initio quantum calculations, we have identified several key features related to the electronic structure and bonding of the Omicron mutations that significantly increase the size of the relevant AABPUs and the positive charge. These findings enable us to conjecture on the biological role of Omicron mutations and their specific effects on cleavage sites and identify the principles that can be of some value in analyzing new variants.