Health
UCLouvain researchers have managed to identify the key that allows the Covid-19 virus to attack cells, the university announced in a press release on Tuesday. They also succeeded in closing the lock in order to block the virus and avoid its interaction with the cell, that is to say to prevent infection.
This discovery, published in the scientific journal Nature Communicationsraises the hope of developing an antiviral, in the form of an aerosol, which would make it possible to eradicate the virus in the event of infection or high-risk contact, underlines UCLouvain. For two years, the team of David Alsteens, researcher at the Institute of Biomolecular Sciences and Technologies of UCLouvain, has been working to understand the precise mechanisms, at the molecular level, used by the virus to infect a cell. They investigated the interaction between sialic acids (AS), kinds of sugar residues present on the surface of cells, and the spike protein (S) of SARS-CoV-2 in order to elucidate its role in the process. of infection.
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We already knew that the sugar residues that decorate cells have the function of promoting their recognition, thus allowing viruses to more easily identify their targets, but also to facilitate their point of attachment and infection. cells. The researchers have now identified a variant of these sugars that interacts more strongly with protein S than other sugars. Clearly, they found the set of keys that allows viruses to open the cell door, explains the university.
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The researchers then decided to catch the virus in its own trap, preventing it from clinging to its host cell. To do this, they blocked the attachment points of the S protein and therefore eliminated any interaction with the cell surface, as if a padlock blocked the lock of the entry door to the cell. “If the virus does not attach to cells, it no longer knows how to enter and therefore it dies. Thanks to this blocking, we prevent the infection”, continues the UCLouvain. And to add that this discovery has the advantage of acting on the virus, independently of the mutations. The team of researchers will now carry out tests on mice in order to apply this blocking of the bonds of the virus and to observe whether it works on the organism. The results should make it possible to develop an antiviral.
Belgian Pair
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