Chen Bing, Farzan Michael, Choe Hyeryun
Division of Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, and Department of Paediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children's Hospital, and Department of Paediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2025 May 6. doi: 10.1038/s41579-025-01185-8.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been a devastating global pandemic for 4 years and is now an endemic disease. With the emergence of new viral variants, COVID-19 is a continuing threat to public health despite the wide availability of vaccines. The virus-encoded trimeric spike protein (S protein) mediates SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells and also induces strong immune responses, making it an important target for development of therapeutics and vaccines. In this Review, we summarize our latest understanding of the structure and function of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein, the molecular mechanism of viral entry and the emergence of new variants, and we discuss their implications for development of S protein-related intervention strategies.
2019年冠状病毒病(COVID-19)由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2(SARS-CoV-2)引起,已成为一场毁灭性的全球大流行长达4年,如今已成为一种地方病。随着新病毒变种的出现,尽管疫苗广泛可得,但COVID-19仍然是对公众健康的持续威胁。病毒编码的三聚体刺突蛋白(S蛋白)介导SARS-CoV-2进入宿主细胞,并诱导强烈的免疫反应,使其成为治疗药物和疫苗开发的重要靶点。在本综述中,我们总结了对SARS-CoV-2 S蛋白的结构和功能、病毒进入的分子机制以及新变种出现的最新认识,并讨论了它们对S蛋白相关干预策略开发的影响。