Scientists create laboratory-developed protein spikes that are similar to the COVID-19 virus to be used in determining how they are made by SARS-CoV-2. The virus is a mystery and the spike is where the infection starts. Examining this process might give insight into how to stop the pathogenic transmission.
Studies are conducted to decode the virus and investigate what components make up the spikes of the coronavirus causing the disease. Labs mimic the actual viral structure to reveal its secrets.
Investigations on how the virus makes its spikes is important in designing tests and vaccines to see how the process works. Experts get the most exact duplication of recombinant spikes which is where the virus starts infecting cells, then tracking the immune systems progress fighting foreign body.
Spikes on you! Cellular invasion
Serological testing covers the antibody reactions and as research reagents, that react artificial mimic spikes used for studies. One conclusion made on how all labs make these spike proteins are all similar, with no significant difference. Also, this shows they are nearly similar and with the smallest variations in most labs, reported Science Daily.
A SARS-CoV-2 spike is covered in Glycans, which are sugars used like a trojan horse to fool the antibody defense in Humans. One problem with too many glycans that can cause too much variation and discrepancies in the spikes studied in labs. laboratory-developed protein spikes that are similar to the COVID-19 are essential for these studies.
New studies
A new study, published in the journal Biochemistry, states that the spike coatings developed in several laboratories around the world compared them to those on the spikes of the infectious virus, cited News Medical.
According to Max Crispin, Professor of Glycobiology at the University of Southampton, the scientific community's haste in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has put more pressure on institutes all over the world to confirm their findings as quickly as possible.
He added that last year, vaccines were developed at an extraordinary speed all around the world, and the rapid synthesis and verification of recombinant proteins were essential to that accomplishment.
In April 2020, his team made a model of the coating of a SARS-CoV-2 spike done in a lab. The same viral component developed in other labs was compared. All the sample spikes can copy the characteristic of the COVID-19 spikes, done at Tsinghua University, China, noted News18.
Dr. Peter Bond, who is part of the A*STAR in Singapore, Bioinformatics Institute of the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research; said that models revealed why the protein impacts the glycans and why the glycosylation was the same in all labs. This predictive approach may be helpful in the design of treatments against new viral variants or even other new viruses."
Professor Crispin said to mimic the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 with accuracy in most labs, without consultation. Laboratory-developed protein spikes that are similar to the COVID-19 will be a big help to researchers.
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