The "closed" variant is the Veesler Lab cryo-EM structure (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.19.956581v1.full …). The "open" variant is the SWISS-MODEL simulated spike protein structure (https://swissmodel.expasy.org/repository/species/26970492 …). I did the ACE2 docking myself, before we had binding data of pocket.
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Here is PDB structure 6WPT, showing a truncated antibody (just the antigen-binding fragment, or Fab, in orange) bound to the spike protein (teal; with one of the trimers in "open" conformation), with the "open" conformation spike bound to ACE2 (red)pic.twitter.com/dFWVjNJ6qW
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Here are the same structures as above, with an overlay this of an entire antibody (PDB ID 6C6Z against MERS-CoV) so you can visualize how big the spike protein is compared to ACE2 and an antibody.pic.twitter.com/kJfYmf8chX
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Now, imagine that you have 1000 of these spikes on each virion, and that any one of the spikes has 3 components as part of a "trimer," where one of the chains can "open" up and bind to ACE2. ACE2 is a sophisticated cloaking and immune evasion mechanism, by virtue of this.
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Furthermore, see all those little sugar molecules? I've colored them yellow here. These are sugars that the virus incorporates into its protein chain, which change the surface behavior of the virus. Without the sugars, your immune response will not be the same towards the spike.pic.twitter.com/4K9dpZl1EG
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Ligandal peptide nanoscaffolds are designed to interfere with ACE2-spike binding, while also promoting a strong immune response against the correct receptor-binding domain component for antibody generation. This means that you can give the nano-scaffold before or after infection.
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Wasn't there a Fantastic Four movie that looked like this?
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The biggest problem with the decoy strategy is that it should probably be given during the early infection phase, which is not practical. The vaccine wins out. By the time patient is in hospital, better target downstream effects.
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Whatever you say.
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Biomedical engineer + scientist developing 
