SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Shares Sequence with a Human Protein
Medical science has already determined that there is a cleavage site in the COVID-19 spike protein for furin, which is also a human protease, and that spike unit is even subdivided into two different parts at that spot. This cleavage site helps in opening the virus such that it can easily enter a human cell.
According to a recently published article, researchers found that the furin cleavage site of the site protein is very much identical to the sequence of the epithelial sodium channel of humans, which mostly has to be infected by furin to get activated.
The above discovery came into existence when the researchers of an artificial intelligence company, started searching for the presence of any amino acid sequence in the coronavirus proteins which seemed a bit unusual or surprising. They concluded and found out that there was a small stretch of four different amino acids which was present in the spike protein structure of 10,956 out of 10,967 COVID-19 isolates from around the world. Many other databases that date back to February and April of this year states that this insertion forms a small cleavage for the protease furin of humans.
Hypothesis Of Scientists On Protein Spikes Competing With Human Sodium Channel
Completely based on the RNA co-expression, scientists hypothesize that during the COVID-19 infection, the protein structure might start competing with the sodium channel of humans for furin cleavage. In case, the competition creates a problem in the activation of the human sodium channel, it might become dysregulated and might cause issues in regulating the fluid balance of the body. This fact clearly explains why most of the coronavirus patients end up with a huge quantity of water or fluids in their lungs.
Clarity On Sodium Channel Downregulation
It is still not that clear why the sodium channel is so much downregulated especially during the COVID-19 virus infection. In case if the furin content has more affinity for the coronavirus and if there is a more viral pressure in the same region, then there can be a huge chance of the alpha unit of the sodium channel potentially affecting the local sodium channel. Though this isn't that much clear, it surely is a very interesting hypothesis.
While all the countries across the world are facing the coronavirus pandemic with courage, the nurses, doctors, and the medical facility remains to be in the front line of defense. Recent data suggest that there is a big shortage of medical authorities and trained nurses in the United States. In order to fill that shortage, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, along with some other American government institutions came up with some great plans and ideas. These plans include several notifications for the Higher education institutes and the nursing schools of the US to fight bravely against this pandemic. Erudite online nursing school came up with an idea to provide online courses including some accelerated nursing programs to further help the nurses fight against the dreaded Coronavirus disease.
Sources-
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/covid-19/controlprevention.html#health
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