SARS-CoV-2 variant Alpha has a spike-dependent replication advantage over the ancestral B.1 strain in human cells with low ACE2 expression.

Deletion of H 69 /V 70 showed a trend toward more efficient processing, in agreement with [ 34 ], and T 716 I showed a 1.6-fold decreased proteolytic processing as compared to B.1, suggesting that the latter mutation, located in the S1/S2 protease cleavage domain in proximity to the polybasic furin cleavage site, may render proteolytic processing of VOC Alpha spike less efficient.

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While entry of B.1 was significantly reduced, VOC Alpha entry was largely unaffected by trypsin treatment with a slight trend toward increased entry upon treatment with 0.7 μg/ml of trypsin and statistically significant enhancement of entry efficiency for VOC Alpha as compared to B.1 ( Fig 6F ).

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