They discover the ‘door’ that opens in SARS-CoV-2 to be able to infect

Protein escalate (S) of SARS-CoV-2 is what allows the virus to enter human cells. It has now been discovered that this contains edges Polysaccharides called glycans that act as “doors” for the virus to infect.

Led study University of California San Diego (US) and published by Nature Chemistry supercomputing to make animated simulations showing how the mechanism of the coronavirus that causes covid-19 works.

The team headed by Romy Amaru of the said university discovered how the glycans that form sugary residue Around the S protein, they act as doors that open and close, without which the virus “becomes essentially incapable of infection.”

discover this”DoorOpens up possible avenues for new treatments to counter infection SARS-CoV-2Because if it could be pharmacologically blocked in the closed position, “it would effectively prevent the virus from opening up to enter and become infected.”

With protein S on its edge, this glycan coating “helps trick the human immune system, since It doesn’t look like that More than a sugary residue.”

simulation super computing It allowed researchers to develop dynamic films that revealed activation of glycan gates. “We can see the opening and closing,” Amaru said.

The scientist stressed that “if you only look at closed structure, and then you look at the open chassis, it doesn’t look like anything special. Just because we get to film the whole process, you really see how it works. “

Protein escalate It has a specific site (RBD) through which it binds to the ACE2 receptor on human cells and the team discovered that glycan N343 is the hub that moves RBD from “bottom” to “up” to allow access to ACE2.

One of the study’s authors, Jason McClellan, notes that the team recreated several variants of S protein They tested how glycan gate deficiency affected the openability of RBD. “Without this gate, the protein S RBD cannot sustain the formation it needs to infect cells.”

With information from EFE