IIT MANDI RESEARCHERS REVEAL KEY SARS CoV 2 PROTEIN STRUCTURE

IIT MANDI RESEARCHERS REVEAL KEY SARS CoV 2 PROTEIN STRUCTURE

Subject : Science & tech

Context :Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi (IIT Mandi) in Himachal Pradesh have revealed the part of structure of a key protein in COVID-19 virus, which helps in understanding its mode of action, its role in the spread and severity of the disease and development of antiviral therapeutics.

Concept :

• According to the team, current COVID-19 treatments simply manage symptoms while the body fights off the infection with its immune defence system. There are, as yet, no confirmed antiviral drugs that can stop the virus from replicating.
• This virus has 16 non-structural proteins (NSP1-NSP16), of which the NSP1 plays a vital role in the pathogenicity (ability to cause disease) of the virus.
• The NSP1 disrupts the proteins of the host cell and suppresses its immune functions. Its importance can be understood by the fact that it is also called the ‘host shutoff factor’.
• NSP1 , is a nonstructural RNA-binding protein that contains a cysteine-rich region and is a component of early replication intermediates.
• RNA-folding predictions suggest that this region of the NSP1 mRNA can interact with itself, producing a stem-loop structure similar to that found near the 5′-terminus of the NSP1 mRNA.