February 4, 2020

An emerging coronavirus causing pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China: calling for developing therapeutic and prophylactic strategies

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Virology

• Jiang, et al. provide a review of sequence homologies among SARS, MERS, and bat-SL-CoV’s related to 2019-nCoV strains in order to predict the potential utility of viral replication inhibitors found effective for SARS and MERS in animal models 
• They align 2019-nCoV S protein sequence with those of SARS-CoV and several bat-SL-CoVs to predict the cleavage site for generating S1 and S2 subunits; likely functioning of those subunits; and specific candidate molecules to interfere with viral replication
  • Two functional domains of the S1 subunit: binding of the virion to the host cell receptor 
  • Three functional domains of the S2 subunit: fusion between viral and cellular membranes

Jiang S, et al. (2020) An emerging coronavirus causing pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China: calling for developing therapeutic and prophylactic strategies, Emerging Microbes & Infections. 9:1, 275-277, DOI: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1723441