Structure-function relationships among selected human coronaviruses

Abstract

Identifying the key proteins among different types of human disease-causing coronaviruses is essential for the molecular mechanism and thereby designing potential drug molecules. Eight selected proteins of seven types of disease-causing coronaviruses, viz.SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2), SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus), MERS-CoV (middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus), Human coronavirus OC43, Human coronavirus HKU1, Human coronavirus 229E and Human coronavirus NL63, were chosen for the comparison. Further, an attempt has been made to explore the most important host-pathogen interactions with a special focus on spike (RBD) protein region as this region deemed to be functionally most important. Epitope region was also identified which helps in the design of epitope-based vaccines. The structural comparison carried out among the seven types of human coronaviruses has revealed the molecular level details on the similarity among this series. This study has facilitated the identification of the important residues in the studied proteins which control the key functions such as viral replication and transmission. Thus, exploring the protein space in the family of coronaviruses, provide valuable insights into the molecular basis associated with the role of proteins and viral infections, which is expected to trigger the identification of the drug targets for coronaviruses infections, in a rational way.