The total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions
Abstract
Quantitatively describing the time course of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection within an infected individual is important for understanding the current global pandemic and possible ways to combat it. Here we integrate the best current knowledge about the typical viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in bodily fluids and host tissues to estimate the total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions in an infected person. We estimate that each infected person carries 109 to 1011 virions during peak infection, with a total mass in the range of 1 μg to 100 μg, which curiously implies that all SARS-CoV-2 virions currently circulating within human hosts have a collective mass of only 0.1 kg to 10 kg. We combine our estimates with the available literature on host immune response and viral mutation rates to demonstrate how antibodies markedly outnumber the spike proteins, and the genetic diversity of virions in an infected host covers all possible single nucleotide substitutions.
Additional Information
© 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). Edited by Ken A. Dill, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, and approved May 10, 2021 (received for review December 13, 2020). We thank Itai Benhar, Gidon Eshel, Shai Fuchs, Thierry Mora, Eran Segal, Maya Shamir, Ziv Shulman, Huicheng Shi, Harinder Singh, Einat Vitner, Aleksandra Walczak, and John Yin for valuable feedback on this manuscript. This research was supported by the European Research Council (Project NOVCARBFIX 646827), Israel Science Foundation (Grant 740/16), Beck-Canadian Center for Alternative Energy Research, Dana and Yossie Hollander, Ullmann Family Foundation, Helmsley Charitable Foundation, Larson Charitable Foundation, Wolfson Family Charitable Trust, Charles Rothschild, Selmo Nussenbaum, Miel de Botton (R.M.), the NIH (1R35 GM118043-01 [Maximizing Investigators' Research Award]) (R.P.), Merkin Institute for Translational Research (R.P.), the Israeli Council for Higher Education via the Weizmann Data Science Research Center, and by a research grant from Madame Olga Klein – Astrachan (R.S.). R.M. is the Charles and Louise Gartner Professional Chair. Y.M.B.-O. is an Azrieli Fellow. Data Availability: All study data are included in the article, SI Appendix, and Dataset S1. R.S. and Y.M.B.-O. contributed equally to this work. Author contributions: R.S., Y.M.B.-O., R.P., and R.M. designed research; R.S., Y.M.B.-O., S.G., B.B., A.F., R.P., and R.M. performed research; R.S., Y.M.B.-O., S.G., B.B., A.F., R.P., and R.M. analyzed data; and R.S., Y.M.B.-O., S.G., B.B., A.F., R.P., and R.M. wrote the paper. The authors declare no competing interest. This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. This article contains supporting information online at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.2024815118/-/DCSupplemental.Attached Files
Published - e2024815118.full.pdf
Submitted - 2020.11.16.20232009v2.full.pdf
Supplemental Material - pnas.2024815118.sapp.pdf
Supplemental Material - pnas.2024815118.sd01.xlsx
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- The total number and mass of SARS-CoV-2 virions in an infected person
- PMCID
- PMC8237675
- Eprint ID
- 106731
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20201118-151353187
- 646827
- European Research Council (ERC)
- 740/16
- Israel Science Foundation
- Beck-Canadian Center for Alternative Energy Research
- Dana and Yossie Hollander
- Ullmann Family Foundation
- Helmsley Charitable Foundation
- Larson Charitable Foundation
- Wolfson Family Charitable Trust
- Charles Rothschild
- Selmo Nussenbaum
- Miel de Botton
- 1R35 GM118043-01
- NIH
- Caltech Merkin Institute for Translational Research
- Council for Higher Education (Israel)
- Weizmann Institute of Science
- Madame Olga Klein
- Charles and Louise Gartner Professional Chair
- Azrieli Fellowship
- Created
-
2020-11-18Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-07-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- COVID-19, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering