Scientists think they have identified a weak point in SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. And just as torpedoes shoot in the Death Star’s outlet, they think they can use this critical weakness to create new treatments.
It all comes down to a small area right next to the spike proteins of the virus, which attach to new host cells, according to research that appeared in the magazine last week ACS Nano. Explaining the vulnerability requires a bit of primer about biochemistry, so bear with us, but Northwestern University scientists suggest that if this vulnerability is addressed, it can reproduce the virus inertly.
Here goes: It may be difficult to conceptualize, but the microscopic interactions between molecules, proteins, and cells actually interact on electrostatics. Opposite charges pull and like charges repel each other, just like on a magnet. That is, this small region on the coronavirus, located just 10 nanometers of the part of the spike protein that glows on a victim’s cells, has a positive charge.
Because the receptors on our cells that target the virus have a negative charge, the two are pulled together by this electrostatic force and they create a tight bond that can eventually infect the cell. This weak spot was hiddenly understood: 10 nanometers is impossibly small for humans, but a fairly large clearance when it comes to electrostatic interactions, so other researchers may have assumed it was just too far away to matter.
The scientists behind the discovery are testing their work by blocking the region with a negatively charged molecule, which then prevents the coronavirus from targeting a host cell. But unfortunately, that molecule in an actual treatment will turn time consuming and tedious work.
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