says
Spin and more spin.
says
Spin and more spin.
Well-Known Member
Super Moderator
Studies on how coronaviruses infect host cells are getting more and more detailed. As scientists are beginning to understand in atomic level how the spike protein binds to the host receptors, a key step that initiates the whole infection process, I’m more convinced that heat will be a big disrupter to initial human2human transmission. I pray for an early, scorching summer.
Scientists are using High resolution Cryo Electron Microscopy to depict the spike protein structures in near atomic level focusing on two functional subunits S1 and S2. S1 is involved in binding to host receptor whereas S2 in fusing virus membrane with host membrane. A concerted sequence of conformational transitions is required for virus RNA be injected into host cell. The longer a coronavirus will remain active with the right S protein conformations outside of a human body, the higher transmission rate. High ambient temperature in summer is expected to drastically shorten that time.
In SARS era, such high resolution Cryo-EM was not available.
If true, this is really amazingly great news.
So I do really hope this is how things will unfold. It feels almost too good to be true. But darn, I hope it gets warm fast and this is how it is.
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