- Remesh, Soumya G;
- Merz, Gregory E;
- Brilot, Axel F;
- Chio, Un Seng;
- Rizo, Alexandrea N;
- Pospiech, Thomas H;
- Lui, Irene;
- Laurie, Mathew T;
- Glasgow, Jeff;
- Le, Chau Q;
- Zhang, Yun;
- Diwanji, Devan;
- Hernandez, Evelyn;
- Lopez, Jocelyne;
- Mehmood, Hevatib;
- Pawar, Komal Ishwar;
- Pourmal, Sergei;
- Smith, Amber M;
- Zhou, Fengbo;
- QCRG Structural Biology Consortium;
- DeRisi, Joseph;
- Kortemme, Tanja;
- Rosenberg, Oren S;
- Glasgow, Anum;
- Leung, Kevin K;
- Wells, James A;
- Verba, Kliment A
The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, with 15 mutations in Spike receptor-binding domain (Spike-RBD), renders virtually all clinical monoclonal antibodies against WT SARS-CoV-2 ineffective. We recently engineered the SARS-CoV-2 host entry receptor, ACE2, to tightly bind WT-RBD and prevent viral entry into host cells ("receptor traps"). Here we determine cryo-EM structures of our receptor traps in complex with stabilized Spike ectodomain. We develop a multi-model pipeline combining Rosetta protein modeling software and cryo-EM to allow interface energy calculations even at limited resolution and identify interface side chains that allow for high-affinity interactions between our ACE2 receptor traps and Spike-RBD. Our structural analysis provides a mechanistic rationale for the high-affinity (0.53-4.2 nM) binding of our ACE2 receptor traps to Omicron-RBD confirmed with biolayer interferometry measurements. Finally, we show that ACE2 receptor traps potently neutralize Omicron and Delta pseudotyped viruses, providing alternative therapeutic routes to combat this evolving virus.