Abstract: By applying molecular docking using both Z-Dock and Haddock software we found that multiple mutations, including
A475V,
V455E,
V445L, and
V445I, resulted in the higher binding free energy as compared to the wild type (WT)
spike protein, thus had a destabilizing effect on the binding to ACE2.
Result: Several mutants, including
A475V,
V455E,
V445L, and
V445I interacted with the higher binding free energy of -10.7 kcal/mol, -11.2 kcal/mol, -11.4 kcal/mol, and -10.8 kcal/mol, respectively, resulting in less stable interaction with ACE2 than the WT
spike protein.