The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has created urgent needs for intervention strategies to control the crisis. The spike (S) protein of the virus forms a trimer and catalyzes fusion between viral and target cell membranes - the first key step of viral infection.(1) The S protein is the most likely target of neutralizing antibodies as it is the main trans-membrane glycoprotein responsible for receptor-binding and virion entry.(2) S protein comprises two functional subunits responsible for binding to the host cell receptor (S1 subunit) and fusion of the viral and cellular membranes (S2 subunit).(3) The S1 subunit contains a receptor-binding domain (RBD) responsible for binding to the host cell receptor ACE2. NEW: Discover our selection of neutralizing antibodies!
References
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