The MERS-CoV Receptor DPP4 as a Candidate Binding Target of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike

iScience

Yan Xie¹  Pengfei Cao²  Xianyi Lian²  Li Yang³  Jianhong Lu³  Shuyu Xin³  Shen Li⁴  Yu Li⁴  Ziding Zhang⁴ 

[1] China-Africa Research Center of Infectious Diseases, Central South University, Changsha 410013, China;Department of Microbiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China;Department of Hematology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410080, China;State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;

关键词: Virology;    Molecular Structure;    Crystallography;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Summary: The ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia COVID-19 has caused great number of cases and deaths, but our understanding about the pathogen SARS-CoV-2 remains largely unclear. The attachment of the virus with the cell-surface receptor and a cofactor is the first step for the infection. Here, bioinformatics approaches combining human-virus protein interaction prediction and protein docking based on crystal structures have revealed the high affinity between human dipeptidylpeptidase 4 (DPP4) and the spike (S) receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2. Intriguingly, the crucial binding residues of DPP4 are identical to those that are bound to the MERS-CoV-S. Moreover, E484 insertion and adjacent substitutions should be most essential for this DPP4-binding ability acquirement of SARS-CoV-2-S compared with SARS-CoV-S. This potential utilization of DPP4 as a binding target for SARS-CoV-2 may offer novel insight into the viral pathogenesis and help the surveillance and therapeutics strategy for meeting the challenge of COVID-19.

【 授权许可】

Unknown