The emerging SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease: Its relationship with recent coronavirus epidemics.
J Med Virol
; 93(3): 1581-1588, 2021 03.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1196480
ABSTRACT
The papain-like protease (PLpro ) is an important enzyme for coronavirus polyprotein processing, as well as for virus-host immune suppression. Previous studies reveal that a molecular analysis of PLpro indicates the catalytic activity of viral PLpro and its interactions with ubiquitin. By using sequence comparisons, molecular models, and protein-protein interaction maps, PLpro was compared in the three recorded fatal CoV epidemics, which involved severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV), and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The pairwise sequence comparison of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro indicated similarity percentages of 82.59% and 30.06% with SARS-CoV PLpro and MERS-CoV PLpro , respectively. In comparison with SARS-CoV PLpro , in SARS-CoV-2, the PLpro had a conserved catalytic triad of C111, H278, and D293, with a slightly lower number of polar interface residues and of hydrogen bonds, a higher number of buried interface sizes, and a lower number of residues that interact with ubiquitin and PLpro . These features might contribute to a similar or slightly lower level of deubiquitinating activity in SARS-CoV-2 PLpro. It was, however, a much higher level compared to MERS-CoV, which contained amino acid mutations and a low number of polar interfaces. SARS-CoV-2 PLpro and SARS-CoV PLpro showed almost the same catalytic site profiles, interface area compositions and polarities, suggesting a general similarity in deubiquitination activity. Compared with MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 had a higher potential for binding interactions with ubiquitin. These estimated parameters contribute to the knowledge gap in understanding how the new virus interacts with the immune system.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus
/
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
/
Coronavirus Papain-Like Proteases
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Med Virol
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Jmv.26497
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