FIGURE 3.
Gibbs free energy of binding and Kd (affinity constant) for viral binding of SARS‐CoV‐2 to ACE2 as potential faciliatory mediators of species jump. Illustration of a potential gradient underpinning the interspecies transmission for SARS‐CoV‐2 based on favorable thermodynamic spontaneity due to a higher affinity of the virus for hACE2. As indicated in the text, this pattern is not dissimilar to that described for influenza A, with a change in tropism and a shift in receptor binding specificity