Immediately after the infection of a cell in the throat or lungs, the SARS-CoV-2 virus works very hard to replicate, using the human cell's metabolic pathways to produce its proteins and make sure that its genetic material (the RNA genome) is copied.
SARS-CoV-2: The grasping fingers of the viral N protein medicalxpress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medicalxpress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SARS-CoV-2 viruses manage to hijack human cells with a minimum of their own proteins and use them as incubators for their offspring. One of these multifunctional viral proteins is the nucleocapsid protein (N), which plays a key role in viral replication and packaging. Researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt have now discovered how N recognizes both viral RNA in general as well as specific RNA positions with the help of “fingers”. In the latter, N adapts to the increased temperature of the host cell. It might be the case that SARS-CoV-2 uses the fever we develop in the course of an infection to switch from virus replication to virus release.