Predicted structural mimicry of spike receptor-binding motifs from highly pathogenic human coronaviruses.

ABSTRACT: Viruses often encode proteins that mimic host proteins in order to facilitate infection. Little work has been done to understand the potential mimicry of the SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV spike proteins, particularly the receptor-binding motifs, which could be important in determining tropism and druggability of the virus. Peptide and epitope motifs have been detected on coronavirus spike proteins using sequence homology approaches; however, comparing the three-dimensional shape of the protein has been shown as more informative in predicting mimicry than sequence-based comparisons. Here, we use structural bioinformatics software to characterize potential mimicry of the three coronavirus spike protein receptor-binding motifs. We utilize sequence-independent alignment tools to compare s

SUBMITTER: Beaudoin CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8249111 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature