No matter where people live, they have been affected by the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus (2019-coV). Just under 20 years ago, people were worried about a different outbreak of coronavirus known as SARS. 2019-coV causes symptoms similar to that of SARS-coV.
Dr. Fang Li and other researchers at the University of Minnesota have been studying how SARS-coV interacts with its hosts (both animal and human) to infect them. Dr. Li’s study is published in the Journal of Virology.
The team has noticed that 2019-coV infects hosts in a similar way to SARS-coV. The scientists used multiple SARS-coV strains along with angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), which is what the Wuhan and SARS coV use to enter a cell. Otherwise, ACE2 helps to regulate heart function.
According to the researchers, “Our structural analyses confidently predict that the Wuhan coronavirus uses ACE2 as its host receptor. Alarmingly, our data predict that a single mutation [at a specific spot in the genome] could significantly enhance [the Wuhan coronavirus's] ability to bind with human ACE2.”
The researchers used the framework they identified in SARS-coV to create a model that may help predict 2019-coV behavior and provide health researchers with insight on how to battle the 2019-coV virus.