Analyzing the Geometry and Dynamics of Viral Structures: A Review of Computational Approaches Based on Alpha Shape Theory, Normal Mode Analysis, and Poisson-Boltzmann Theories.

ABSTRACT: The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic highlights our fragility when we are exposed to emergent viruses either directly or through zoonotic diseases. Fortunately, our knowledge of the biology of those viruses is improving. In particular, we have more and more structural information on virions, i.e., the infective form of a virus that includes its genomic material and surrounding protective capsid, and on their gene products. It is important to have methods that enable the analyses of structural information on such large macromolecular systems. We review some of those methods in this paper. We focus on understanding the geometry of virions and viral structural proteins, their dynamics, and their energetics, with the ambition that this understanding can help design antiviral agents. We discuss thos

SUBMITTER: Hsieh YC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10300701 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature