病毒复制
生物
病毒
病毒学
表型
发病机制
体外
冠状病毒
脂滴
基因
遗传学
细胞生物学
2019年冠状病毒病(COVID-19)
免疫学
疾病
医学
传染病(医学专业)
病理
作者
Weili Wang,Yafei Qu,Xin Wang,Maggie Z X Xiao,Joyce Fu,Lei Chen,Yuejuan Zheng,Qiming Liang
摘要
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection leads to the accumulation of lipid droplets (LD), the central hubs of the lipid metabolism, in vitro or in type II pneumocytes and monocytes from coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) patients and blockage of LD formation by specific inhibitors impedes SARS-CoV-2 replication. Here, we showed that ORF3a is necessary and sufficient to trigger LD accumulation during SARS-CoV-2 infection, leading to efficient virus replication. Although highly mutated during evolution, ORF3a-mediated LD modulation is conserved in most SARS-CoV-2 variants except the Beta strain and is a major difference between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 that depends on the genetic variations on the amino acid position 171, 193, and 219 of ORF3a. Importantly, T223I substitution in recent Omicron strains (BA.2-BF.8) impairs ORF3a-Vps39 association and LD accumulation, leading to less efficient replication and potentially contributing to lower pathogenesis of the Omicron strains. Our work characterized how SARS-CoV-2 modulates cellular lipid homeostasis to benefit its replication during virus evolution, making ORF3a-LD axis a promising drug target for the treatment of COVID-19.
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