It's published in "Nature Communications":
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30313-8
Mind you, this is the full-blown research paper. Hard to read for laymen. This is a Google translate of the French summary for you:
"
This is a very promising world first. A team of UCLouvain scientists has managed to identify the key that allows the covid virus to attack cells. Better, she managed to close the lock in order to block the virus and avoid its interaction with the cell. In other words, to prevent infection. This discovery, published in "Nature Communications", arouses immense hope: that of developing an antiviral that would eradicate the virus in the event of infection or high-risk contact.
Despite the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns, the
threat posed by
COVID-19 is
not yet entirely remote . We are not immune to the
appearance of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 and the long-term effectiveness of vaccines remains unknown. In addition, cases of acute infection are still reported. However,
to date, no effective treatment exists ."
"For 2 years, the team of
David Alsteens , researcher at
UCLouvain's Institute of Biomolecular Sciences and Technologies (LIBST ), has been working
to understand the mechanisms used by the virus to infect a cell . In a study published in
Nature Communications , she investigated
the interaction between sialic acids (SA) , kinds of sugar residues present on the surface of cells,
and the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2. She wanted to elucidate its role in the infection process.
We already knew that all cells are decorated with sugar residues. The role of the latter is to promote cell recognition, which in particular allows viruses to more easily identify their targets but also to facilitate their point of attachment to allow them to enter their host cell and thus initiate their infection.
What did UCLouvain scientists discover ? They highlighted a variant of these sugars (9-O-acetylated) interacting more strongly with protein S than the other sugars. Clearly, they
found the set of keys that allows viruses to open the cell door . Why a keychain? The virus is made up of a series of spike proteins, sorts of suction cups that allow it to cling to the cell and
ultimately enter. The more keys the virus finds, the better the interaction with the cell will be and the bigger the door will open. Hence the importance of finding how the virus manages to multiply the entry keys.
Catch the virus in its own trap
This is where the second discovery of the UCLouvain team comes in: it has managed to catch the virus in its own trap,
preventing it from clinging to its host cell. How ? By
blocking the attachment points of the S protein and therefore eliminating any interaction with the cell surface. As if a
padlock blocked the lock of the front door of the cell.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the various vaccines have mainly attacked the mutations of SARS-CoV-2, but not the virus as a whole. This UCLouvain discovery has the advantage of acting on the virus, independently of the mutations.
Next? The UCLouvain team will carry
out tests on mice in order to apply this blocking of the links of the virus and to
observe whether it works on the organism . The results should not be long in coming and should make it possible
to develop an antiviral from these sugars, administered by aerosol, in the event of infection or contact at risk.
This discovery is also interesting for the future, to
counter other viruses whose attachment factors are similar."
That should be easier to digest for normal folks, like us
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