Why some strains of Covid are more infectious than others

New York, February 28: A team of researchers has discovered a reason that likely makes SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, much more infectious than SARS-CoV-1, which caused the epidemic of SARS in 2003.

The coronaviruses that cause SARS and Covid-19 have spike proteins that move into ‘active’ and ‘inactive’ positions, and the study shows how these molecular movements can make the Covid-19 virus more infectious compared to the SARS virus, according to the researchers, including one of Indian origin named Vivek Govind Kumar.

“We discovered in these simulations that SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 have completely different ways of changing shape, and at different timescales,” said University researcher Mahmoud Moradi. from Arkansas.

“SARS-CoV-1 moves faster, it turns on and off, which doesn’t give it as much time to stick to the human cell because it’s not as stable. SARS-CoV-2, on the other hand, is stable and ready to attack, ”he added.

The researchers explained that the first step in coronavirus infection is for the virus to enter cells. For this entry, the spike proteins outside of the SARS-CoV virus must reposition themselves.

Scientists know the position of the “inactive” and “active” states of the spike proteins of both SARS-CoV-1 and -2 viruses, but the team wanted to study how the spikes moved from one position to another and the dynamics of these movements.

For the study, presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, the team turned to molecular simulations.

The other implication for their research is “we could design therapies that change the dynamics and make the inactive state more stable, thus promoting the deactivation of SARS-CoV-2. It is a strategy that has not yet been adopted, ”explained Moradi.

It is valuable to be able to do this kind of simulations, Moradi said, in the event of a new coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 mutation appearing so that we can predict whether the new virus or variant might be more transmissible and infected. .

Disclaimer: This story is automatically generated from the IANS service.