An amino acid substitution from asparagine to tyrosine at position 501 in the UK COVID-19 variant's spike protein creates a stronger bond with the ACE2 receptor, potentially leading to increased viral entry and replication.

“so the uk variant has a single amino acid substitution um in in in an aromatic amino acid creating an aromatic amino acid and that seems to reduce the level of virus neutralizing antibodies i don't know if i have a mechanism to show you pictures yeah do you know how to share a screen on zoom yeah i have a really cool graphic it's a little bit of molecular biology but not but not much i i just showed this at a at a pediatric grand rounds at columbia this morning and to me it it ex it helps people understand it but it's you know as i often like to say it's not a 30 second unicef commercial so this is a a paper that's up in bioarchive a pre-print server and looking at the b117 variant and so looking and what and in the spike protein what there is there's an amino acid substitution in the 501 position or went from an asparagine to a tyrosine and a tyrosine is an aromatic amino acid it has a ring to it and they're able to show model it with the receptor the angiotensin-converting enzyme it's got a nice strong bond there yeah there's a ring-ring interaction so it's these pi pile these pi electrons that circulate in aromatic rings that are interacting with each other in addition there's a hydrogen bond”