Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus deeply affected the world community. It gave a strong impetus to the development of not only approaches to diagnostics and therapy, but also fundamental research of the molecular biology of this virus. Fluorescence microscopy is a powerful technology enabling detailed investigation of virus–cell interactions in fixed and live samples with high specificity. While spatial resolution of conventional fluorescence microscopy is not sufficient to resolve all virus-related structures, super-resolution fluorescence microscopy can solve this problem. In this paper, we review the use of fluorescence microscopy to study SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses. The prospects for the application of the recently developed advanced methods of fluorescence labeling and microscopy—which in our opinion can provide important information about the molecular biology of SARS-CoV-2—are discussed.
Highlights
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic deeply affected the world community
These data were confirmed for SARS-CoV-2: Wolff et al used cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) to analyze the structure of coronavirus-induced replication organelle (RO) and demonstrated that the coronavirus transmembrane protein nsp3 is a component of the pore complex [34]
The function of most viral proteins was evaluated without the use of fluorescence The function of most viral proteins was evaluated without the use of fluorescence microscopy, but some important issues were clarified using this technique
Summary
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic deeply affected the world community. Millions of deaths, severe health side effects, dramatic economic losses, heavily impacted social life, culture and education—most people in the world have been injured in one way or another. The outbreaks of SARS in 2003 and MERS-CoV in 2012 triggered extensive research efforts, there are currently no drugs that can effectively treat any zoonotic coronavirus. None of the inhibitors of viral enzymes can provide absolutely reliable protection because of the ability of most viruses of rapid mutation under the pressure of natural selection. Fluorescence microscopy is a relatively simple and robust technology, which is broadly used in virtually all fields of biology including virology It provides extremely high sensitivity (down to single molecules) and specificity due to antibody staining or genetically encoded tags. Another key advantage of fluorescence microscopy is a possibility to work with live cells enabling studying structures and processes in dynamics in real time. Applications of fluorescence microscopy to study SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses
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