Binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to glycans

• 作者: Wei Hao Bo Ma Ziheng Li Xiaoyu Wang Xiaopan Gao Yaohao Li Bo Qin Shiying Shang Sheng Cui Zhongping Tan
• 来源期刊: 科学通报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（12）
• 所属期刊栏目: ARTICLES
• 页码范围: 1205-1214
• 页数: 10页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

The pandemic of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a high number of deaths in the world.To combat it,it is necessary to develop a better understanding of how the virus infects host cells.Infection normally starts with the attachment of the virus to cell-surface gly-cans like heparan sulfate (HS) and sialic acid-containing glycolipids/glycoproteins.In this study,we examined and compared the binding of the subunits and spike (S) proteins of SARS-CoV-2,SARS-CoV,and Middle East respiratory disease (MERS)-CoV to these glycans.Our results revealed that the S proteins and subunits can bind to HS in a sulfation-dependent manner and no binding with sialic acid residues was detected.Overall,this work suggests that HS binding may be a general mechanism for the attach-ment of these coronaviruses to host cells,and supports the potential importance of HS in infection and in the development of antiviral agents against these viruses.