Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics (KLOFE) & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing Tech University (NanjingTech), 30 South Puzhu Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 211800, China.
Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China.
Int J Biol Sci. 2020 Mar 15;16(10):1724-1731. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.45498. eCollection 2020.
Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a group of enveloped, single-stranded positive genomic RNA viruses and some of them are known to cause severe respiratory diseases in human, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the ongoing coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). One key element in viral infection is the process of viral entry into the host cells. In the last two decades, there is increasing understanding on the importance of the endocytic pathway and the autophagy process in viral entry and replication. As a result, the endocytic pathway including endosome and lysosome has become important targets for development of therapeutic strategies in combating diseases caused by CoVs. In this mini-review, we will focus on the importance of the endocytic pathway as well as the autophagy process in viral infection of several pathogenic CoVs inclusive of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and the new CoV named as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and discuss the development of therapeutic agents by targeting these processes. Such knowledge will provide important clues for control of the ongoing epidemic of SARS-CoV-2 infection and treatment of COVID-19.
冠状病毒（CoVs）是一组包膜的、单链正基因组 RNA 病毒，其中一些已知会导致人类严重的呼吸道疾病，包括严重急性呼吸综合征（SARS）、中东呼吸综合征（MERS）和正在发生的冠状病毒病-19（COVID-19）。病毒感染的一个关键因素是病毒进入宿主细胞的过程。在过去的二十年中，人们越来越认识到内吞作用途径和自噬过程在病毒进入和复制中的重要性。因此，内吞作用途径包括内体和溶酶体已成为针对 CoV 引起的疾病开发治疗策略的重要靶点。在这篇小综述中，我们将重点关注几种致病 CoV 包括 SARS-CoV、MERS-CoV 和新的 CoV 严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）的病毒感染中内吞作用途径和自噬过程的重要性，并讨论通过靶向这些过程开发治疗药物的情况。这些知识将为控制正在发生的 SARS-CoV-2 感染和治疗 COVID-19 提供重要线索。
