Coronavirus

What Do We Know about COVID-19?

The ongoing pneumonia outbreak in the city of Wuhan is caused by a newly identified coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, named by the World Health Organization on January 12nd, 2020.This new virus belongs to the Betacoronavirus Genus, which also includes SARS CoV (2003) and MERS CoV (2012). The sequence reveals that 2019-nCoV is more similar to SARS-CoV (70% similarity) than to MERS-CoV (40%).

As part of our comprehensive Infectious disease portfolio, Stratech can offer a range of novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV primary antibodies and antigens (details below), 2019-nCoV multiplex RT-qPCR detection kit and NGS library prep kit.

Same as all other coronaviruses, the genome of 2019-nCOV encodes the spike protein, the envelope protein, the membrane protein, and the nucleocapsid protein.

The spike protein (S-protein) mediates receptor binding and membrane fusion. Spike protein contains two subunits, S1 and S2. S1 contains a receptor binding domain (RBD), which is responsible for recognizing and binding with the cell surface receptor. S2 subunit is the “stem” of the structure, which contains other basic elements needed for the membrane fusion. The spike protein is the common target for neutralizing antibodies and vaccines.

It’s been reported that 2019-nCoV (ref.) can infect the human respiratory epithelial cells through interaction with the human ACE2 receptor. Indeed, the recombinant Spike protein can bind with recombinant ACE2 protein.

Reference: Xintian Xu.Evolution of the novel coronavirus from the ongoing Wuhan outbreak and modeling of its spike protein for risk of human transmission.SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences.2020

The nucleocapsid Protein (N-protein) is the most abundant protein in coronavirus. The N-protein is a highly immunogenic phosphoprotein, and it is normally very conserved. The N protein of coronavirus is often used as a marker in diagnostic assays.

Below is a list of relevant tools for 2019-nCOV research, including cDNA clones, antigens, detection and sequencing kits which have been developed immediately after the sequence was published. The recombinant antigens include the full length S protein (ECD), the S1 subunit, the S2 subunit, the S1 RBD, and the N protein.