📄 Potent MERS-CoV fusion inhibitory peptides identified from HR2 domain in spike protein of bat coronavirus HKU4

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) emerged in 2012 and caused continual outbreaks worldwide with high mortality. However, no effective anti-MERS-CoV drug is currently available. Recently, numerous evolutionary studies have suggested that MERS-CoV originated from bat coronavirus (Bat. CoV). We herein reported that three peptides derived from the HR2 region in spike protein of Bat. CoV HKU4, including HKU4-HR2P1, HKU4-HR2P2 and HKU4-HR2P3, could bind the MERS-CoV HR1-derived peptide to form a six-helix bundle (6-HB) with high stability. Moreover, these peptides, particularly HKU4-HR2P2 and HKU4-HR2P3, exhibited potent inhibitory activity against MERS-CoV S-mediated cell–cell fusion and viral infection, suggesting that these HKU4 HR2-derived peptides could be candidates for futher development as antiviral agents against MERS-CoV infection.

keywords 🔗 syndrome coronavirus (1074) 🔗 spike protein (353) 🔗 six-helix bundle (19) 🔗 high mortality (78) 🔗 respiratory syndrome (2004)

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