Fig. 1: SARS-CoV-2 2-E mutations are potential pathogenicity markers.
From: Impact of SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein mutations on the pathogenicity of Omicron XBB
a The Δfrequency of 92 2-E mutations. b The normalized cell death rate of 2-E mutations. c The cell lethality of 2-E mutations. d Correlation analysis of Δfrequency and cell lethality. The dotted gray circles represent Class I, the dotted red circles represent Class II, and the dotted blue circles represent Class III (Spearman’s correlation analysis: R2 = 0.33, P < 0.0001). e The quantification of hospitalization rate and disease severity up to Omicron BA.5 and the contribution of Class II and III mutations in tabulate. Pathogenicity of different SARS-CoV-2 variants3,7,8. f Heatmap of 6 key mutation frequencies in Omicron subvariants. g Flow chart of the experiments. h Cell lethality and viral loads for Vero E6 cells after transfection with plasmids as indicated. i, j The activity of 2-E WT and T11A in causing cell lethality, cytokine release, and viral production. k Flow chart of the experiments. l Histopathology of lungs from the 2-E WT, T11A and T9I/T11A protein treatment groups. Scale bars, 10 μm. m qRT‒PCR analysis of cytokine levels 24 h after treatment. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; unpaired Student’s t-test. All error bars are SEM (n ≥ 3).
