Significance of Sialoglycans in SARS-CoV2 Infection
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15419/bmrat.v8i10.696Keywords:
Coronavirus, N-acetylneuraminic acid, salivary diagnostics, sialic acid, targeted drug therapyAbstract
The second wave of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has hit India badly with a rapid surge of cases. One of the greatest challenges in managing infections from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the incomplete knowledge regarding the disease course, hypersensitivity, and relative resistance in a number of individuals. Recently, it has been reported that besides the Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), certain sialic acids present on the cell surface may also function as potential receptors for binding the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. In this brief commentary we briefly discuss the role of sialic acids in SARS-CoV-2 infection and suggest more research investigations pertaining to this arena. This may pave the way for breakthrough solutions to combat the current pandemic more effectively by developing specific drug-targeted therapies.
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Copyright The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access by BioMedPress. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0) which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.