Electron Microscopy Research Department, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute, Egypt.
Pharmaceutical Technology Department, Pharmaceutical and Drug Industries Institute, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.
Ultrastruct Pathol. 2022 Jan 2;46(1):1-17. doi: 10.1080/01913123.2022.2035475. Epub 2022 Feb 9.
Research centers around the world are competing to develop therapeutic and prophylactic agents to provide new intervention strategies that could halt or even help slow the progression of the COVID19 pandemic. This requires a deep understanding of the biology and cytopathology of the interaction of SARS-CoV-2 with the cell. This review highlights the importance of electron microscopy (EM) in better understanding the morphology, the subcellular morphogenesis, and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2, given its nanometric dimensions. The study also underscores the value of cryo-electron microscopy for analyzing the structure of viral protein complex at atomic resolution in its native state and the development of novel antibodies, vaccines, and therapies targeting the trimeric S spike proteins and the viral replication organelles. This review highlighted the emergence in a short period of time of several viral variants of concern with enhanced transmissibility and increased infectivity. This is due to the elevated affinity of the host receptor with acquired adaptive mutations in the spike protein gene of the virus.Subsequently, to the technical improvement of EM resolutions and the recent promising results with SARS-CoV2 variant structure determination, antibodies production, and vaccine development, it is necessary to maximize our investigations regarding the potential occurrence of immune pressure and viral adaptation secondary to repeated infection and vaccination.
世界各地的研究中心正在竞相开发治疗和预防药物,以提供新的干预策略,从而阻止甚至有助于减缓 COVID19 大流行的进程。这需要深入了解 SARS-CoV-2 与细胞相互作用的生物学和细胞病理学。鉴于其纳米级尺寸,本综述强调了电子显微镜(EM)在更好地理解 SARS-CoV-2 的形态、亚细胞形态发生和发病机制方面的重要性。该研究还强调了冷冻电子显微镜在分析病毒蛋白复合物的结构方面的价值,该结构以原子分辨率在其天然状态下呈现,并开发了针对三聚体 S 刺突蛋白和病毒复制细胞器的新型抗体、疫苗和疗法。本综述强调了在短时间内出现了几种具有增强传染性和感染力的令人关注的病毒变体。这是由于宿主受体与病毒刺突蛋白基因中获得的适应性突变的亲和力升高所致。随后,随着 EM 分辨率的技术提高以及 SARS-CoV2 变体结构确定、抗体产生和疫苗开发方面的最新有希望的结果,有必要最大限度地开展关于由于反复感染和接种而产生的免疫压力和病毒适应性的潜在发生的研究。