In silico analyses on the comparative sensing of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA by intracellular TLRs of human

Published: Nov. 11, 2020, 3:02 a.m.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.11.11.377713v1?rss=1 Authors: Choudhury, A., Das, N. C., Patra, R., Bhattacharya, M., Mukherjee, S. Abstract: The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 leads to loss of mankind and global economic stability. The continuous spreading of the disease and its pathogenesis takes millions of lives of peoples and the unavailability of appropriate therapeutic strategy makes it much more severe. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are the crucial mediators and regulators of host immunity. The role of several TLRs in immunomodulation of host by SARS-CoV-2 is recently demonstrated. However, the functionality of human intracellular TLRs including TLR3,7,8 and 9 is still being untested for sensing of viral RNA. This study is hoped to rationalize the comparative binding and sensing of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA towards the intracellular TLRs, considering the solvent-based force-fields operational in the cytosolic aqueous microenvironment that predominantly drive these reactions. Our in-silico study on the binding of all mRNAs with the intracellular TLRs shown that the mRNA of NSP10, S2, and E proteins of SARS-CoV-2 are potent enough to bind with TLR3, TLR9, and TLR7 and trigger downstream cascade reactions, and may be used as an option for validation of therapeutic option and immunomodulation against COVID-19. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info