ప్రోటీమిక్స్ & బయోఇన్ఫర్మేటిక్స్ జర్నల్
అందరికి ప్రవేశం

నైరూప్య

A Bioinformatic Approach for COVID-19 Spike Glycoprotein Deactivation by Chemical Modification of Asparagine and Lysine Residues via Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C

Homa Torabizadeh*

To invade human cells, COVID-19 uses its spike glycoprotein as the major surface protein. This glycoprotein can be inactivated through chemical modification of surface accessible asparagine and lysine residues by vitamin B6 (pyridoxal-5'-phosphate, PLP) and vitamin C (ascorbic acid). This reversible reaction leading to the formation of a Schiff base (aldimine), and consequent reduction by ascorbate lead to form a stable phosphopyridoxyl-lysyl or asparagyl covalent bonds. For this purpose, at first, the spike glycoprotein sequences in similar proteins with 100% identity was specified by using of UniProtKB that is located at the ExPASy server. All of these proteins have a 1,255 length and 139,125 Mass (Da) respectively. Then, GetArea software was used for accessible surface area determination of each sequence by employing of PDB files that is reserved at PDB website. The results revealed that, 51 out of 81 (for asparagine) and 22 out of 48 (for lysine) are accessible for PLP reaction. Thus, terminal amino groups (NH₂) of asparagine and lysine can react with PLP and produce Schiff base bond an then it can be converts to a strong covalent bond by ascorbic acid reduction. In this way, attachment and fusion process can be prevented. This may be a way for vaccine and drug preparation.