Coronavirus: a new perspective for its containment and treatment

08.05.2023

An international research team, led by the University of Padua, published the article Perturbation of the host cell Ca2+ homeostasis and ER-mitochondria contact sites by the SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins E and M in the prestigious ‘Cell Death and Disease’ journal. The article highlights the role of E and M proteins –poorly characterized until now- in the cellular proliferation mechanisms of coronaviruses. The work may open up new perspectives for the containment and treatment of epidemics from different types of coronavirus.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a contagious respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Clinical outcomes range from spontaneous recovery to serious illness and death. In March 2020, a global COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO. Three years later, in 2023 almost 670 million cases and 6.8 million deaths have been confirmed worldwide. Coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, contain a single-stranded RNA genome enclosed in a viral capsid made up of four structural proteins: the nucleocapsid (N) protein, the spike (S) protein, the envelope (E) protein, and membrane (M) protein.

Tito Calì, from the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Padua and corresponding author explains, “In particular, the E protein is a poorly characterized viroporin with high identity amongst all coronaviruses and holds a low mutation rate. Our work focused on the E and M proteins of SARS-CoV-2, we found that they play different roles in the mechanism of production of viral particles inside the cell. We produced, purified, and tested specific antibodies called nanobodies that are capable of modulating the activity of viroporin and thus modifying the pathological mechanism that, in the cell, allows the proliferation of the virus.

Marisa Brini, from the Department of Biology of the University of Padua and co-author of the study concludes by saying,  “In addition opening a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms through which these proteins interfere with cellular processes, our study suggests that the E protein might be an important therapeutic candidate not only for vaccine development but also for the clinical management of COVID designing drug regimens that, so far, are very limited.”