Glycosylation of SARS-CoV-2 to identify the structural characteristics of COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2 is a human virus emerging from the Coronaviridae family. SARS-CoV-2 is the etiologic agent of a new pneumonia called COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019. Due to the rapid increase in the number of cases affecting several countries, WHO has classified the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic ongoing. As of April 1, there were 750,890 confirmed cases and 36,405 deaths worldwide. Understanding the virus-host dynamics is fundamental for the development of prophylactic, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, in addition to the establishment of measures for the epidemiological control of COVID-19. Many molecular aspects still need to be understood about the behavior of SARS-CoV-2 and the host's response during infection, e.g. molecular and cellular markers of serious, mild and asymptomatic infections, providing a better understanding of the pathogenesis of COVID-19. In this project, we propose the application of a spatial and temporal proteomic approach to characterize the SARS-CoV-2: host interaction, to be addressed on three interconnected fronts: (1) evaluation of the signaling pathways activated by systematic quantitative analysis of the temporal dynamics in protein and glycosylation changes during infection of human cells by SARS-CoV-2; (2) characterization of the diversity of SARS-CoV-2 proteome and PTMs; and (3) development of an early diagnosis and prognosis platform based on the proteomic profile of sera from patients with different clinical characteristics. The proposed project will contribute to broaden the understanding of viral pathogenesis and will prioritize the discovery of biomarkers for rapid diagnostic tests.