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Predicted structural mimicry of spike receptor-binding motifs from highly pathogenic human coronaviruses.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Beaudoin, Christopher A 
Jamasb, Arian R 
Alsulami, Ali F 
van Tonder, Andries J 

Abstract

Viruses often encode proteins that mimic host proteins in order to facilitate infection. Little work has been done to understand the potential mimicry of the SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV spike proteins, particularly the receptor-binding motifs, which could be important in determining tropism and druggability of the virus. Peptide and epitope motifs have been detected on coronavirus spike proteins using sequence homology approaches; however, comparing the three-dimensional shape of the protein has been shown as more informative in predicting mimicry than sequence-based comparisons. Here, we use structural bioinformatics software to characterize potential mimicry of the three coronavirus spike protein receptor-binding motifs. We utilize sequence-independent alignment tools to compare structurally known protein models with the receptor-binding motifs and verify potential mimicked interactions with protein docking simulations. Both human and non-human proteins were returned for all three receptor-binding motifs. For example, all three were similar to several proteins containing EGF-like domains: some of which are endogenous to humans, such as thrombomodulin, and others exogenous, such as Plasmodium falciparum MSP-1. Similarity to human proteins may reveal which pathways the spike protein is co-opting, while analogous non-human proteins may indicate shared host interaction partners and overlapping antibody cross-reactivity. These findings can help guide experimental efforts to further understand potential interactions between human and coronavirus proteins.

Description

Keywords

COVID-19, Coronavirus spike protein, Infectious disease, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, Structural bioinformatics, Viral host mimicry

Journal Title

Comput Struct Biotechnol J

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2001-0370
2001-0370

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (200814/Z/16/Z)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/M011194/1)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/N00468X/1)
Wellcome Trust (107032/B/15/Z)
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