CONCISE IN SILICO PREDICTION REPORT OF A POTENTIAL PRION-LIKE DOMAIN IN SARS-COV-2 POLYPROTEIN

Hassan Mohabatkar,Mandana Behbahani,Mohammad Moradi

doi:10.15414/jmbfs.4813

Abstract

COVID-19 has shown higher virulence compared to the previous coronavirus epidemics and has shown that it causes damages to the nervous system. In the present study, PrionW web server was used to predict the prion-like domains (PrLDs) in 15 structural and non-structural proteins of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. Among all of these proteins, the results demonstrated one PrLD with the sequence 951EDDYQGKPLEFGATSAALQPEEEQEEDWLDDDSQQTVGQQDGSEDNQTTTIQTIVEVQPQL1012, having an amyloid-core of 988GQQDGSEDNQTTTIQTIVEVQ1009 in the non-structural protein of SARS-CoV-2 with pWALTZ_Score of 59.9936. The sequence of SARS-CoV-2 polyprotein was further investigated by FoldIndex© tool, and a negative fold index was demonstrated at the site of predicted prion-like domain. Multiple sequence alignment of this region with non-structural proteins of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, showed that there is no sequence similarity between this predicted region and the corresponding regions of two other viruses. Considering the high similarity between polyproteins of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, and their ability to affect the nervous system, it could be suggested that a potential PrLD might be added to SARS-CoV polyprotein.

Highlights

Changing the human behaviors and environmental factors have caused the development of more than 30 new infectious disorders in the last decades (Nkengasong 2020)
In 2019– 20, coronavirus pandemic of COVID-19 appeared by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Ahmed et al 2020)
It has reported that in mice infected with MERS-CoV, viral particles were found only in the brain, but not in the lung, which demonstrates that the infection in the central nervous system could be more critical for the high mortality rate in the infected mice (Li et al 2020)

Summary

Introduction

Changing the human behaviors and environmental factors have caused the development of more than 30 new infectious disorders in the last decades (Nkengasong 2020). It seemed necessary to predict the prion like domains (PrLDs) in various proteins of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 and find out a probable relationship among the neural damage capability of these viruses and the presence of PrLDs. Prion disorders are infectious neurodegenerative condition that happen in both humans and animals, which could be a cause for mortality and morbidity (Aguzzi et al 2008). Prion disorders are infectious neurodegenerative condition that happen in both humans and animals, which could be a cause for mortality and morbidity (Aguzzi et al 2008) These low complexity sequences are found in RNA binding proteins. In the present work a bioinformatics approach is used to investigate the possible role of prion like domain involved in SARS-CoV-2 that could influence different aspects of pathogenesis and immune responses toward this pandemic infection

Methods

Results

Conclusion