Page 70 - Covid 2021 June 2021

discussed and the paper is going to be a ready resource for researchers to gain succinct, up-to- date insights on SARS-CoV-2.
Contact Info: ajitg@iiserb.ac.in
Website link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33644261/
IISER Bhopal’s research shows coronavirus ‘N protein’ plays critical
role in viral transmission
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal have shown that proteins from the COVID-19 virus other than the well-known ‘spike protein’ can play a critical role in the infectivity of the virus.
The establishment of SARS CoV-2 spike-pseudotyped lentiviral (LV) systems have enabled the rapid identification of entry inhibitors and neutralizing agents, alongside allowing for the study of this emerging pathogen in BSL-2 level facilities. While such frameworks recapitulate the cellular entry process in ACE2+ cells, they are largely unable to factor in supplemental contributions by other SARS-CoV-2 genes.
To address this, researchers from IISER, Bhopal performed an unbiased open reading frame (ORF) screen and identified the nucleoprotein (N) as a potent enhancer of spike- pseudotyped LV particle infectivity and further demonstrate that this augmentation by N renders LV spike particles less vulnerable to the neutralizing effects of a human IgG-Fc-fused ACE2 microbody.
Biochemical analysis revealed that the spike protein is better enriched in virions when the particles are produced in the presence of SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein. Importantly, this improvement in infectivity is achieved without a concomitant increase in sensitivity towards RBD binding- based neutralization. The results hold important implications for the design and interpretation of similar LV pseudotyping-based studies.
Contact Info: ajitg@iiserb.ac.in
Website link:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.11.430757v1
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