Structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 membrane proteins for the design of new inhibitors of viral assembly.

The highly pathogenic human respiratory coronaviruses of the SARS family (SARS-CoV, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2) cause acute lethal disease characterized by exuberant inflammatory responses and lung damage. The fundamental step in the replication and dissemination of the virus is its complete assembly in the intermediate region between the ER and the Golgi (ERGIC in English), which depends on protein-protein interactions between the structural viral proteins, mainly intramembrane interactions. However, the complexity of this type of interaction and the lack of structural information has, to date, made it impossible to understand how CoV viruses are assembled and to be able to design therapeutic tools to prevent it. With the achievement of this project, we will provide structural information on these interactions to the scientific and pharmaceutical community as a first step to achieve their inhibition and subsequent viral assembly.