Chasing COVID-19 through SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein

An ongoing pandemic Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by a newly emerged Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has affected millions of people globally. One of the most crucial structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 is the Spike glycoprotein (S-glycoprotein), for which the first de novo modelling was envisaged by our group in early 2020, and was superimposed to its predecessor SARS-CoV S-glycoprotein, to determine structural divergence, glycosylation and antigenic variation between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV. S-glycoprotein is involved in binding with the cellular receptor, membrane fusion, internalization via angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, and tissue tropism. Upon internalization into the target host cells, the viral genome encodes two precursor polypeptides which get processed into 16 mature nonstructural proteins that play a crucial role in replication and transcription of SARS-CoV-2. Currently S-glycoprotein is one of the most vital targets for vaccine and therapeutics development for COVID-19.