Abstract
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 genome has undergone several mutations. The emergence of such variants has resulted in multiple pandemic waves, contributing to sustaining to date the number of infections, hospitalisations, and deaths despite the swift development of vaccines, since most of these mutations are concentrated on the Spike protein, a viral surface glycoprotein that is the main target for most vaccines. A milestone in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has been represented by the development of Paxlovid, the first orally available drug against COVID-19, which acts on the Main Protease (Mpro). In this article, we analyse the structural features of both the Spike protein and the Mpro of the recently reported SARS-CoV-2 variant XE, as well the closely related XD and XF ones, discussing their impact on the efficacy of existing treatments against COVID-19 and on the development of future ones.
Keywords: COVID-19; Mpro; Paxlovid; SARS-CoV-2; Spike protein; XD variant; XE variant.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Spike protein, MPro, Paxlovid, XD variant, XE variant., 【초록키워드】 Treatment, Efficacy, pandemic, Mutation, Vaccines, spike, COVID-19 pandemic, mutations, variant, SARS-CoV-2 variant, Spike protein, MPro, Surface glycoprotein, Protein, infections, outbreak, SARS-CoV-2 genome, death, glycoprotein, Paxlovid, hospitalisations, viral surface, milestone, feature, reported, contributing to, the Spike, the SARS-CoV-2 genome, 【제목키워드】 Wuhan-Hu-1, the SARS-CoV-2,