Gao Lei, Ding Yong-Sheng, Dai Hua, Shao Shi-Huang, Huang Zhen-De, Chou Kuo-Chen
Bio-Informatics Research Center, College of Information Sciences and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China.
J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2006 Apr 11;41(1):246-50. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2005.09.031. Epub 2005 Nov 14.
Spike (S) protein is the most important membrane protein on the surface of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). It associates with cellular receptors to mediate infection of their target cells. Inspired by such a mechanism, an in-depth investigation into the genome sequences of S protein of SARS-CoV and its receptor are conducted thru a mathematical transformation and graphic approach. As an outcome, a novel method for visualizing the characteristic of SARS-CoV is suggested. An extensive comparison among a large number of genome sequences has proved that the characteristic thus revealed is unique for SARS-CoV. As such, the characteristic can be regarded as the fingerprint map of SARS-CoV for diagnostic usage. Moreover, the conclusion has been further supported in a real case in Guangdong province of China. The fingerprint map proposed here has the merits of clear visibility and reliability that can serve as a complementary clinical tool for detecting SARS-CoV, particularly for the cases where the results obtained by the conventional methods are uncertain or conflicted with each other.
刺突（S）蛋白是严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒（SARS-CoV）表面最重要的膜蛋白。它与细胞受体结合以介导对其靶细胞的感染。受这种机制的启发，通过数学变换和图形方法对SARS-CoV的S蛋白及其受体的基因组序列进行了深入研究。结果，提出了一种可视化SARS-CoV特征的新方法。大量基因组序列之间的广泛比较证明，所揭示的特征对于SARS-CoV是独特的。因此，该特征可被视为用于诊断用途的SARS-CoV指纹图谱。此外，在中国广东省的一个实际病例中，这一结论得到了进一步支持。这里提出的指纹图谱具有清晰可见性和可靠性的优点，可作为检测SARS-CoV的辅助临床工具，特别是对于传统方法获得的结果不确定或相互矛盾的病例。
