Abstract
A group of researchers led by Ben Davis of the University of Oxford and the Rosalind Franklin Institute has developed a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique to study the molecular interactions between pathogens and the cells they infect. In a demonstration of the new approach, the researchers found that the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can latch on to sugars on human cells—possibly helping the virus enter cells ( Science 2022, DOI: 10.1126/science.abm3125 ). Sugars, as Davis says, are “always there.” They play multiple roles in biological systems, and one of their main functions is helping different biological entities recognize one another. At the beginning of the pandemic, Davis wondered if sugars might play a role in how SARS-CoV-2 gets into human cells. Scientists had determined that the virus can enter when the spike protein on its surface interacts with the ACE2 receptor on cells, but
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