Department of Biophysics, Medical School, University of Pécs, Szigeti Str. 12, H-7624 Pécs, Hungary.
Szentágothai Research Centre, Virological Research Group, University of Pécs, Ifjúság Str. 20, H-7624 Pécs, Hungary.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 May 31;23(11):6189. doi: 10.3390/ijms23116189.
SARS-CoV-2 infections are responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Transferrin has been found to explain the link between diseases associated with impaired iron transport and COVID-19 infection. The effect of SARS-CoV-2 on human whole blood was studied by differential scanning calorimetry. The analysis of the thermal transition curves showed that the melting temperature of the transferrin-related peak decreased in the presence of SARS-CoV-2. The ratio of the under-curve area of the two main peaks was greatly affected, while the total enthalpy of the heat denaturation remained nearly unchanged in the presence of the virus. These results indicate that SARS-CoV-2, through binding to transferrin, may influence its Fe uptake by inducing thermodynamic changes. Therefore, transferrin may remain in an iron-free apo-conformational state, which depends on the SARS-CoV-2 concentration. SARS-CoV-2 can induce disturbance in erythropoiesis due to toxicity generated by free iron overload.
SARS-CoV-2 感染是 COVID-19 大流行的罪魁祸首。转铁蛋白已被发现可以解释与铁转运受损相关的疾病与 COVID-19 感染之间的联系。差示扫描量热法研究了 SARS-CoV-2 对人全血的影响。热转变曲线的分析表明，在 SARS-CoV-2 存在的情况下，与转铁蛋白相关的峰的熔点降低。两个主要峰的下曲线面积比受到很大影响，而在病毒存在的情况下，热变性的总焓几乎保持不变。这些结果表明，SARS-CoV-2 通过与转铁蛋白结合，可能通过诱导热力学变化来影响其铁的摄取。因此，转铁蛋白可能仍处于无铁的脱铁状态，这取决于 SARS-CoV-2 的浓度。SARS-CoV-2 可能会因游离铁过载产生的毒性而导致红细胞生成紊乱。
