Multimerization of the heptad repeat regions of the SARS-CoV 2 spike protein.

Fiche publication

Date publication

décembre 2023

Journal

Biochimica et biophysica acta. Biomembranes

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Pr BECHINGER Burkhard

Tous les auteurs :
Aisenbrey C, Bechinger B

Lien Pubmed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38061554

Résumé

The heptad repeat 1 and 2 (HR1, HR2) regions in the spike protein of SARS-CoV 2 play a key role in the fusogenic mechanism of the virus with the host cell. During the fusion process they are thought to rearrange into an interdomain multimer. Functional fragments of the heptad repeat 1 and 2 regions in the spike protein of SARS-CoV 2 were chemically synthesized, labeled with nitrofurazone (NBD) and their interactions investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy. Steady state emission, fluorescence quenching, anisotropy and lifetime measurements in combination with a fluorophore dilution scheme were used to dissect multimer formation of HR1 and HR2 in quantitative detail. In addition, the investigation of the multimers by homo-FRET (via anisotropy) and lifetime measurements reveals new insights into the mechanism of fluorophore-fluorophore interactions in biological samples.