Comparative Analysis of Nanomechanical Features of Coronavirus Spike Proteins and Correlation with Lethality and Infection Rate

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world. Its causative virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), enters human cells through the physical interaction between the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of its spike protein and the human cell receptor ACE2. Here, we provide a novel way of understanding coronavirus spike proteins, connecting their nanomechanical features, specifically their vibrational spectrum and quantitative measures of mobility, with virus lethality and infection rate. The key result of our work is that both the overall flexibility of upward RBD and the mobility ratio of RBDs in different conformations represent two significant factors that show a positive scaling with virus lethality and an inverse correlation with the infection rate. Our analysis shows that epidemiological virus properties can be linked directly to pure nanomechanical, vibrational aspects, offering an alternative way of screening new viruses and mutations, and potentially exploring novel ways to prevent infections from occurring.