📄 Identification of a receptor-binding domain in the S protein of the novel human coronavirus middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus as an essential target for vaccine development

A novel human Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) caused outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-like illness with a high mortality rate, raising concerns of its pandemic potential. Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) was recently identified as its receptor. Here we showed that residues 377 to 662 in the S protein of MERS-CoV specifically bound to DPP4-expressing cells and soluble DPP4 protein and induced significant neutralizing antibody responses, suggesting that this region contains the receptor-binding domain (RBD), which has a potential to be developed as a MERS-CoV vaccine. © 2013, American Society for Microbiology.

keywords 🔗 severe acute (1373) 🔗 syndrome coronavirus (1074) 🔗 high mortality (78) 🔗 receptor-binding domain (99) 🔗 antibody responses (58) 🔗 respiratory syndrome (2004) 🔗 acute respiratory (1734)

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