新冠病毒 z-bo 2020-10-30 368

　　The new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 caused Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in 2019 and is currently rampant worldwide. Vaccines are an urgent need to control the pandemic. There is currently no human vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, but about 120 candidate vaccines are being developed. SARS-CoV-2 and two other closely related highly pathogenic viruses SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV belong to the β-coronavirus genus of the coronavirus family.

　　SARS-CoV-2 has a 30 kb single-stranded RNA genome. The nucleocapsid protein (N) and the outer membrane composed of membrane protein (M), envelope protein (E) and spike protein (S) cover the genome. Like SARS-CoV, the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 binds to the co-receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) through the receptor binding domain (RBD) and mediates the virus to host cells. Do it. Prior to this, scientists confirmed that SARS-CoV and MERS-CoVBD contain major conformation-dependent neutralizing epitopes and can trigger effective neutralizing antibodies in immunized animals. This is a promising vaccine development. aims. The structure of the SARS-CoV-2 protein has recently been elucidated, but the detailed structure of the complete virus has not yet been elucidated.

　　In a new study, researchers from research institutions such as Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University in China used cold electron tomography (cryo-ET) and sub-tomogram averaging (STA) techniques to create the real SARS-CoV-2 virus. Reported its molecular structure. Related research results were published online in the "Cell Journal" on September 14, 2020, with the title "Molecular Structure of SARS-CoV-2 Virus". These researchers determined the natural structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the pre-fusion and post-fusion conformations, with an average resolution of 8.7-11 angstroms. They used mass analysis to analyze the composition of N-linked glycans in the natural SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and reorganized the overall therapeutic status of these natural N-linked glycans. I found that it is comparable to SARS-CoV-. The processing conditions of glycans on the two spiked proteins are very similar. They revealed the natural conformation and higher assembly properties of SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleoprotein (RNP).

　　"To sum up, these characteristics reveal the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in great detail, and how the virus packs a single segment of approximately 30 kb of RNA into a capsule with a diameter of approximately 80 m.