A researcher from the Hebrew University: the new virus has changed its face compared to Sars and will be difficult to neutralize

Prof. Michal Liniel and her research partners from the Hebrew University published a biological study that revealed the essential differences in the attack strategy of the new corona virus, COVID-19, compared to its "family member" Sars, which disappeared from the world about 20 years ago. The unfortunate conclusion: its binding strength to human cells is particularly strong and difficult to detect compared to Sars, so it will be difficult to develop against COVID-19 drugs that have been proven to be effective against Sars

A new biological article published a few days ago by Prof. Michal Liniel, together with a young faculty member Dina Schneidman from the Department of Biological Chemistry and the School of Computer Science at the Hebrew University and Esther Briel, a postdoctoral specialist at the Hebrew University, on BioRxiv, the server of scientific articles that are written before publication - states that there is no certainty that drugs effective against one virus from the corona family (there are seven of them) will be able to work against members of the same group. The researchers studied the structure of the new corona virus and viruses structurally similar to it, SARS and MERS (MERS, a virus belonging to the corona family that struck mainly Saudi Arabia in 2012-13 and killed about 35 percent of those infected with it), and especially their ability to bind to healthy cells in -The human lungs.

According to the researchers, each of the viruses has a different "attack ability" to bind to the human receptors, and the method of binding varies from virus to virus. What about the new corona virus, COVID-19? This virus and the Sars virus are structurally very similar to each other at 72.8 percent - and therefore the researcher decided to test in depth the capabilities of these two viruses - but the way they connect is through the same unique bumps (because of them the corona virus is called by its name, a large amount of bumps that create the appearance of crown) to the human ACE2 receptor (ACE2 was previously identified as an essential receptor that mediates between the SARS virus and human cells, and is widely expressed in almost all human tissues with particularly high expression levels in the lungs), affects the ability to find a drug for COVID-19 similar to the one that neutralized it in the past the SARS virus.

The researchers ran different simulations of the binding of COVID-19 and SARS (SARS-2002) to the ACE2 receptor to evaluate the binding differences and even the dynamics of the binding. The Sars virus, according to the article by Prof. Lineal and her research colleagues, binds to the human receptor in a springy and flexible way and the connection between it and the receptor is often loose and not strong, at points described in the article as "hot spots". Therefore, it is relatively easy to make drugs to break those bonds. In contrast, the new corona virus optimally connects to more meeting points on the surface of the human cell, or as the researchers stated in their article: "Covid-19 has a significantly higher number of double and strong bonds compared to SARS-2002, 52 compared to 28 such connections", and "the surface area of ​​the COVID-19 is significantly larger than SARS with an impressive number of contact points with the virus". Due to this connection of the COVID-19 to many points on the surface of the receptor, at the same time, it will be difficult to separate them easily from the human cells and therefore, on a medical level, it will be difficult for the researchers to develop a drug that can break the large amount of connections created through the refinement of existing drugs, which were considered Previously effective against SARS.

Beyond what is shown in the article, the researchers speculate that the new corona virus will probably be part of our daily routine for many years to come. "As soon as a vaccine is found, there will be those who will be vaccinated and will be protected against the disease, and those who are not vaccinated will continue to spread it. I assume that in the future, when we understand the continuous learning process of the virus by our immune system, we will treat children at school or with another protocol that will suit our new 'friend'. Unlike SARS and March, which disappeared as quickly and suddenly as they appeared, SARS in 2004 and March in 2018, we have to live with the knowledge that the new corona virus is not going anywhere, just as there are many types of viruses that live among us and we have to live with them. If we relate this to the reality in which we live, enemies need to be recognized and a way to make peace with them," Prof. Liniel points out.

for the scientific article

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