Scientists have discovered one reason why SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is much more contagious than SARS-CoV-1, which caused the SARS epidemic in 2003. They reported at the annual conference of the international scientific society Biophysical Society.
- University of Arkansas researchers discovered what could make the novel coronavirus more contagious and spread at such a pace
- This is due to the ability to switch the spike protein from “inactive” to “active”
- Prof. Moradi: This makes SARS-CoV-2 more stable and ready to attack all the time
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Coronavirus: What Makes It So Contagious?
Their study showed that the spike proteins (spike proteins) present on the surface of both coronaviruses can shift between ‘active’ and ‘inactive’ positions. And it is these molecular movements that can make the virus that causes COVID-19 much more contagious than SARS-CoV-1, and the epidemic it caused is much more devastating.
The authors of the discovery are researchers from the University of Arkansas (USA). As they explain, the first step during infection with any coronavirus is the penetration of its particles into the host cells. For this to happen, the spike proteins that reside on the surface of the virus must reposition.
It was known beforehand that these spikes could switch from “inactive” to “active” state. Both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 viruses possess this ability. The team of prof. However, Mahmoud Moradi decided to investigate how the spikes pass from one position to another and what the dynamics of these movements consist in. To this end, they used a molecular simulation technique.
– These simulations revealed that SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 have completely different ways to change shape and do so on different time scales, says Moradi. – SARS-CoV-1 moves faster, activates and deactivates all the time, so there is not much time to adhere to a human cell. It’s just not that stable. The situation is different with SARS-CoV-2: this one is more stable and ready to attack all the time.
Moradi adds that there is a region at the end of the spike protein that has often been ignored in previous studies. Meanwhile, this fragment is very important for protein stability.
“Mutations in this area can affect the virus’s ability to transmit and are worth paying attention to,” he explains. – Based on this, we could design therapies that alter the dynamics of the virus and make the inactive state more stable, which promotes the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2. Nobody has used such a strategy yet.
As the scientist concludes, it is worth performing such simulations in the future in the event of new, potentially dangerous coronaviruses or new SARS-CoV-2 mutations. They will make it possible to predict whether such a new virus or variant will have a higher or lower ability to transmit and infect. As part of this strategy, the team has already started testing a variant of SARS-CoV-2 called B.1.1.7 (the so-called British) to detect differences in its movements.
author: Katarzyna Czechowicz / PAP
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