A team led by the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences may have found
In the new work, the authors studied the S-protein: the coronavirus uses this protein to bind to the cell receptor and penetrate inside; without it, the virus simply cannot penetrate the cell.
Hence, the virus uses the so-calledglycosylation as a masking mechanism for the formation of a sugar coat in specific regions of the spike protein to hide from the host's immune response.
The authors suggested that lectins mayhelp find new proteins by interaction with the spike protein. Glycosylation sites of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein remain highly conserved among circulating variants. Thus, identifying the lectins that bind these glycosylation sites could improve our methods of fighting the virus.
The team developed and tested a library of more than 140 mammalian lectins. As a result, the authors found two proteins that bind to the SARS-CoV-2 protein - Clec4g and CD209c.
We now have tools that can bind the protective layer of the virus and block its entry into cells.
Stefan Mereiter, a researcher in Penninger's lab
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