The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 infects cells by plugging into a receptor on their surface. Now, by crafting a "decoy" of that receptor, scientists aim to foil the virus's attack.
In a new study, published Aug. 4 in the journal Science, researchers engineered such a decoy and found that the coronavirus bound tightly to the imposter receptor, and once attached, the virus couldn't infect primate cells in a lab dish. The decoy binds to the virus as tightly as a neutralizing antibody, a Y-shaped molecule generated by the immune system to grab the virus and prevent it from infecting cells.
Neutralizing antibodies are the "best that the human body makes … so that's our target" — to have a decoy receptor that sticks to the coronavirus just as snuggly, study author Erik Procko, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Live Science. The team found that their newly designed decoy, known as sACE2.v2.4, tightly binds both the novel coronavirus and SARS-CoV, a related virus that caused outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the early 2000s.
https://www.livescience.com/decoy-ace2-receptor-for-covid19.html
In a new study, published Aug. 4 in the journal Science, researchers engineered such a decoy and found that the coronavirus bound tightly to the imposter receptor, and once attached, the virus couldn't infect primate cells in a lab dish. The decoy binds to the virus as tightly as a neutralizing antibody, a Y-shaped molecule generated by the immune system to grab the virus and prevent it from infecting cells.
Neutralizing antibodies are the "best that the human body makes … so that's our target" — to have a decoy receptor that sticks to the coronavirus just as snuggly, study author Erik Procko, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Live Science. The team found that their newly designed decoy, known as sACE2.v2.4, tightly binds both the novel coronavirus and SARS-CoV, a related virus that caused outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the early 2000s.
https://www.livescience.com/decoy-ace2-receptor-for-covid19.html
