Covid-19 Furin Cleavage Site

[khs]

The new coronavirus has a HIV-like mutation that means its ability to bind with human cells could be up to 1,000 times as strong as the Sars virus, according to new research by scientists in China and Europe.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3052495/coronavirus-far-more-likely-sars-bond-human-cells-scientists-say

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by khs

[khs]

Sorry, I was in a rush when I posted this and did not post the actual study. The website does not seem to load in Chrome/Brave, but does in Firefox, so I downloaded the PDF and uploaded it here.

ACE2 shedding and furin abundance in target organs may influence the efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 entry

http://www.chinaxiv.org/abs/202002.00082

202002.00082v1.pdf

[niman]

5 minutes ago, khs said:

Sorry, I was in a rush when I posted this and did not post the actual study. The website does not seem to load in Chrome/Brave, but does in Firefox, so I downloaded the PDF and uploaded it here.

ACE2 shedding and furin abundance in target organs may influence the efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 entry

http://www.chinaxiv.org/abs/202002.00082

202002.00082v1.pdf 736.62 kB · 0 downloads

Note that this is another study on result of a furin cleavage site (which is a polybasic cleavage site). I have edited the title of this thread to reflect the nature of the cleavage site. Acquisition of a polybasic cleavage site is in many high path viruses, including H5 and H7 influenza or Newcastle virus.  The original article referenced in the SCMP report is posted here

 

[khs]

3 minutes ago, niman said:

 

Sorry, I thought I made a mistake when I updated it so I changed it back. 🙂

Thanks for the clarification.

[niman]

13 minutes ago, khs said:

Sorry, I thought I made a mistake when I updated it so I changed it back. 🙂

Thanks for the clarification.

We are going keep the conspiracy nonsense off this site.  The HIV reference is just click bait used by media.  I am changing title to reflect the scientific report you updated as well as the title of the scientific reported cited in the SCMP media report.

There are MANY sites dedicated to unscientific conspiracy theories.  This is not one of them 

Do NOT change the title on this thread

Edited March 1, 2020 by niman

[khs]

8 minutes ago, niman said:

We are going keep the conspiracy nonsense off this site.  The HIV reference is just click bait used by media.  I am changing title to reflect the scientific report you updated as well as the title of the scientific reported cited in the SCMP media report.

There are MANY sites dedicated to unscientific conspiracy theories.  This is not one of them 

Do NOT change the title on this thread, or you will be banned from further posting.

This is your FIRST and LAST warning.

Sorry, it was an accident, I had no idea it was a conspiracy theory. I will make sure I don't update the title again...

[niman]

13 minutes ago, khs said:

Sorry, it was an accident, I had no idea it was a conspiracy theory. I will make sure I don't update the title again...

The HIV started with another pre-print that claimed the SARS-CoV2 S gene had HIV inserts. The paper was based on a poorly designed Genbank search and was quickly withdrawn.

However, it was used to support a conspiracy theory that SARS-Cov-2 was genetically altered to make it a bio-weapon.

The sequence has no such alteration.  Coronaviruses frequently recombine and small inserts or deletions are common.  The polybasic cleavage site represents an insertion of 4 amino acids (2 of which are basic), which is similar to insertions that distinguish high and low path influenza or Newcastle virus.  Such changes are common in nature and not due to genetic alterations by humans.

Edited March 1, 2020 by niman

[khs]

16 minutes ago, niman said:

The HIV started with another pre-print that claimed the SARS-CoV2 S gene had HIV inserts. The paper was based on a poorly designed Genbank search and was quickly withdrawn.

However, it was used to support a conspiracy theory that SARS-Cov-2 was genetically altered to make it a bio-weapon.

The sequence has no such alteration.  Coronaviruses frequently recombine and small inserts or deletions are common.  The polybasic cleavage site represents an insertion of 4 amino acids (2 of which are basic), which is similar to insertions that distinguish high and low path influenza or Newcastle virus.  Such changes are common in nature and not due to genetic alterations by humans.

Great - understood. I will refrain from posting anything that claims such a relationship.

Thanks again.

[ecotropicworks]

I wonder if the flattening effort going on in the US, esp in California, ultimately means that I will simply get the disease later on.

In short, Estimates of infection rates range from 60-70 percent. If that is so, does it mean that I have a 60-70 percent chance of eventually

getting covid 19? 

 

Why is it so difficult to get straight answers. The people in the white house team are nearly useless and often irresponsible.

[E Bernton]

Interleukin-12 upregulates furin gene expression.  Thus one can see a situation where an effective Th1 response to virus could potentiate viral entry, as well as up-regulating other pro-inflammatory proteins dependent on furin pro-protein cleavage.  This could be the positive feedback loop leading to ARDS.  The other important information from chinese pre-prints, is the activation of complement by viral coded proteins.  (Highly pathogenic coronavirus N protein aggravates lung injury by MASP-2- mediated complement over-activation Authors: Ting Gao1#, Mingdong Hu3, 5#, Xiaopeng Zhang1, 4#, Hongzhen Li6,)  Stable anaphylatoxin products such as C3a des arg should be measured in patients with severe COVID pneumonia.  There are two marketed complement cascade inhibitors out there!   

We are looking at repurposing of TLR-9 agonist immunostimulatory oligonucleotides (CpG ODNs) to induce type 1 interferons and provide prophylaxis against COVID infection.

Does anyone know if furin expression is up regulated or down-regulated by induction of the interferon response genes?

[xander77]

> Acquisition of a polybasic cleavage site is in many high path viruses, including H5 and H7 influenza or Newcastle virus

Interesting that a coronavirus could have acquired the furin cleavage site, and enhanced RBDs. Now it can leverage ACE2 and CD147.

Do you think it translocated with a lentivirus? RaTG13 is the closest known bat-CoV and it's spike is perhaps as divergent as 93%. In what species could a bat-CoV translocate with a lentivirus, whilst obtaining a significant number of synonymous substitutions?

[niman]

On 5/3/2020 at 2:41 AM, xander77 said:

> Acquisition of a polybasic cleavage site is in many high path viruses, including H5 and H7 influenza or Newcastle virus

Interesting that a coronavirus could have acquired the furin cleavage site, and enhanced RBDs. Now it can leverage ACE2 and CD147.

Do you think it translocated with a lentivirus? RaTG13 is the closest known bat-CoV and it's spike is perhaps as divergent as 93%. In what species could a bat-CoV translocate with a lentivirus, whilst obtaining a significant number of synonymous substitutions?

The low path avian viruses frequently acquire a polybasic cleavage site via non-homologous recombination with avian influenza.  Closest SARS CoV2 bat sequence is hCoV-19/bat/Yunnan/RmYN02/2019.  No evidence for recombination with lentivirus (HIV).

Edited May 4, 2020 by niman