SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.5 May Be a Variant That Spreads More Widely and Faster Than Other Variants

Abstract

In this research, we aimed to predict the relative risk of the recent new variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the basis of our previous research. We first performed molecular docking simulation analyses of the spike proteins with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to determine the binding affinities to human cells of three new variants of SARS-CoV-2: Omicron BQ.1, XBB, and XBB.1.5 We then investigated the three variants to discover the evolutionary distance of the spike protein gene (S gene) from the Wuhan, Omicron BA.1, and Omicron BA.4/5 variants, to understand the changes in the S gene. The results indicated that the XBB.1.5 variant had the highest binding affinity of the spike protein with ACE2 and the longest evolutionary distance of the S gene. This in silico evidence suggested that the XBB.1.5 variant may produce infections that spread more widely and faster than can infections of preexisting variants.