IIT Madras researchers are studying the high transmission potential of coronavirus

IIT Madras researchers are studying the high transmission rate and mortality of SARS-CoV-2, the scientific name for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The team set out to understand how spike proteins of these different virus strains interact with the human cells.

IIT Madras researchers are studying the high transmission rate and mortality of SARS-CoV-2, the scientific name for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Using computational tools, the team studied its two close variants -- SARS-CoV and NL63. The team set out to understand how the spike proteins (which enables the coronavirus to penetrate human cells and cause Covid-19) of these different virus strains are interacting with the ACE2 receptors of human cells and how this interaction is affecting their transmission potential and severity of the disease ‘SARS-CoV’ can be considered a ‘sibling’ of the subfamily beta coronavirus ‘SARS-CoV-2.’ The ‘NL63’ belongs to sub-family alpha coronavirus can be considered as a ‘cousin’ of SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV is more severe than SARS-CoV-2 whereas NL63 shows milder symptoms than SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2.