Alpha-soluble NSF attachment protein prevents the cleavage of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by functioning as an interferon-upregulated furin inhibitor

ABSTRACT

The new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is raging around the world, infecting more than 460 million people and killing more than 6 million people, posing a serious threat to human health. Analyzing the pathogenic mechanism of the virus and discovering new drug targets are the keys to the development of antiviral drugs. Similar to the envelope proteins of many important viruses such as Ebola virus and Marburg virus, the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 relies on the cleavage and processing of cellular furin to mature during infection, and then make the virus infective, so furin is an important potential target for antiviral therapy. However, the regulation mechanism of furin enzyme activity in cells under physiological and infection conditions is not yet very clear.