SARS-CoV-2 Virion Stabilization by Zn Binding

Silvia Morante; Giovanni La Penna; Giancarlo Rossi; Francesco Stellato

doi:10.3389/fmolb.2020.00222

SARS-CoV-2 Virion Stabilization by Zn Binding

Front Mol Biosci. 2020 Sep 17:7:222. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2020.00222. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Silvia Morante^{1

2}, Giovanni La Penna^{2

3}, Giancarlo Rossi^{1

2

4}, Francesco Stellato^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
² INFN, Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
³ CNR, Insitute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds, Firenze, Italy.
⁴ Centro Fermi - Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche "Enrico Fermi", Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Zinc plays a crucial role in the process of virion maturation inside the host cell. The accessory Cys-rich proteins expressed in SARS-CoV-2 by genes ORF7a and ORF8 are likely involved in zinc binding and in interactions with cellular antigens activated by extensive disulfide bonds. In this report we provide a proof of concept for the feasibility of a structural study of orf7a and orf8 proteins. A conceivable hypothesis is that lack of cellular zinc, or substitution thereof, might lead to a significant slowing down of viral maturation.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; Zn binding; molecular dynamics computer simulation; orf7a and orf8 proteins; tetherin/Bst2; zinc finger.