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Covid-19 and SARS compared: the new SARS-Cov-2 is much less lethal but more contagious. One of the reasons lies in the ways in which the spike protein moves by adapting its shape as it enters cells. What is the importance of this protein

The world of coronaviruses today is a little better known than even a few years ago, due to the dramatic circumstance of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sars-Cov-2, the cause of Covid, is much less and fortunately much less lethal than the viruses responsible for Sars and Mers , however the infection is much more contagious . Today, a research group from the University of Arkansas in the United States has identified one of the reasons why the virus causing Covid-19 is much more transmissible than the one responsible for SARS. The key is in the spike protein , with which viruses enter the host cell. The results were presented at the 65th annual meeting of theBiophysical Society , an international scientific society that deals with Biophysics.

Coronavirus: a diverse family

Coronaviruses are a family of rna viruses, divided into various genera. Coronaviruses cause common colds and more dangerous pathogens such as the now known Sars-Cov-2 are part of it. Unfortunately, the group is expanding with the discovery of recent viruses such as Sars-Cov-1 in 2002, responsible for Sars , Mers-Cov in 2012, cause of Mers , and in 2019 Sars-Cov-2 with Covid-19 . Although similar, because they belong to the same family, these pathogens are very different from each other, both for contagiousness and for lethality.

The spike protein: Covid-19 and Sars

The Arkansas group, like many other teams around the world, has focused on the spike protein , the key to everything, also the target of Covid vaccines . To enter cells and infect them, the spike protein must reposition itself and move from position and from active to inactive state . The authors studied how this transition occurs in Sars-Cov-1 and Sars-Cov-2 and reproduced the dynamics of the movements with molecular simulations . From the simulations they found that the changes in the shape of spike proteins needed to penetrate cells are very different between the two viruses.“Sars-Cov-1 moves faster” , explains Mahmoud Moradi , who coordinated the research, “it activates and deactivates, in a dynamic that does not give it much time to enter the human cell because it is not very stable” . On the contrary, Sars-Cov-2 is stable and ready to attack . Probably there are also additional mechanisms by which the new virus is more contagious than SARS-Cov-1 and other research groups are working on the subject. Here the image of the spike proteins of the two coronaviruses.

The importance of the spike protein

Studying the spike protein of the new coronavirus and its possible mutations is very important to learn more about the transmissibility of Sars-Cov-2 and any new, more contagious variants . And there is a region of the protein, according to researcher Moradi, the final tail of the spike, which has been largely overlooked by research and should be studied more. Not only for mutations but also to seek new therapies . "We could develop treatments - concludes the expert - that alter the dynamics and make the inactive state [of the spike protein ed.] More stable., thus promoting the deactivation of Sars-Cov-2. This is a strategy not yet adopted ” . We are still in the realm of hypotheses but such an approach could be studied, in the future, not only against Covid-19 but also against other viruses and epidemics with the help of the covid-19 hpc fund.