New Paper (Other): SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry Depends on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and Is Blocked by a Clinically Proven Protease Inhibitor

[rdvelazquez]

Title: SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry Depends on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and Is Blocked by a Clinically Proven Protease Inhibitor

General Information

Please paste a link to the paper or a citation here:

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867420302294

What is the paper's Manubot-style citation?

Citation: [@doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.02.052]

Is this paper primarily relevant to Background or Pathogesis?

• [x] Background
• [x] Pathogenesis
• [ ] Methods

Please list some keywords (3-10) that help identify the relevance of this paper to COVID-19

• Spike
• Cell Entry
• ACE2
• TMPRSS2
• Protease
• Sera

Which areas of expertise are particularly relevant to the paper?

• [x] virology
• [ ] epidemiology
• [ ] biostatistics
• [x] immunology
• [x] pharmacology
• [ ] other:

[rdvelazquez]

I won't try to summarize this paper (mostly over my head) but I saw that it is used as a reference in the pathogenesis section for, "sera from convalescent SARS-CoV patients can effectively cross-neutralize SARS-CoV-2-S-driven entry"

and was wondering if someone with expertise in this are wanted to double check to make sure this statement couldn't be misinterpreted. It seems like the paper states it less conclusively:

• The highlights section of the paper states, "Antibodies against SARS-CoV spike may offer some protection against SARS-CoV-2"
• The graphical abstract lists SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Efficiency by SARS Convalescent Sera as "Yes (Moderate)"
• and Figure 5 shows the values of the applicable experiment

[nilswellhausen]

Punchline: I think "sera from convalescent SARS-CoV patients can effectively cross-neutralize SARS-CoV-2-S-driven entry" is an overstatement.

Arguments: The paper at #97 shows that most cross-reactivity between the different SARS strains is caused by binding to the S protein outside of the important RBD. This suggests that cross-reactivity is often overinterpreted between different strains. The blocking of viral entry with the patient sera from SARS patients in Fig.5 is not really impressive for SARS-CoV-2, so I would definitely not use the word "effectively".

I would change that sentence to "sera from convalescent SARS-CoV patients might have some efficacy to cross-neutralize SARS-CoV-2-S-driven entry"

[cgreene]

I agree that it's an overstatement. @nilswellhausen : can you propose a modification via a pull request?

[nilswellhausen]

Yes did that #139