Coronavirus makes changes that make cells not recognize it

With an alarm code, we can enter a building without the bells ringing. It turns out that the SARS 2 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has the same advantage when entering cells. He has the code to dance the waltz.

On July 24 at Nature’s Communications, researchers at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) reported how the coronavirus achieves this.

The scientists worked out the structure of an enzyme called nsp16, which the virus produces and then uses to modify its messenger RNA boundary, said Yogesh Gupta, Ph.D., lead author of the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano School of Medicine study. Long. at UT Health San Antonio.

“It is camouflage,” said Dr. Gupta. “Due to the modifications, which trick the cell, the resulting viral messenger RNA is now considered part of the cell’s own code and not foreign.”

Deciphering the three-dimensional structure of nsp16 paves the way for the rational design of antiviral drugs for COVID-19 and other emerging coronavirus infections, Dr. Gupta said. The drugs, new small molecules, would inhibit nsp16 from making the modifications. The immune system would launch into the invading virus, recognizing it as foreign.

“Yogesh’s work uncovered the three-dimensional structure of a key COVID-19 virus enzyme required for its replication and found a pocket that can be targeted to inhibit that enzyme. This is a fundamental advance in our understanding of the virus,” said the co-author. from the study Robert Hromas, MD, professor and dean of the Long School of Medicine.

Dr. Gupta is an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology at UT Health San Antonio and is a member of the university’s Greehey Childhood Cancer Research Institute.

In simple terms, messenger RNA can be described as a genetic code generator for protein producing work sites.