spike glycoprotein

^[1]^[2]^[3]

Structure

attachment protein for SARS viruses
- attaches to ACE2 in the case of SARS CoV, including SARS CoV2
  - requires a transmembrane protease TMPRSS2 in order for the virus enter a cell
spike glycoproteins are synthesized as precursors with proteolysis facilitating refolding required to create stable virus-cell linkages & membrane coalescence^[2]

↑ Hoffmann M, Kleine-Weber H, Schroeder S SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry Depends on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and Is Blocked by a Clinically Proven Protease Inhibitor. Cell. 2020 Mar 4. pii: S0092-8674(20)30229-4. PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32142651
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 UniProt http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/Q9BYF1.html
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Wrapp D, Wang N, Corbett KS et al Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation. Science 13 Mar 2020: Vol. 367, Issue 6483, pp. 1260-1263 PMID: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32075877 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6483/1260