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Results from a recent study by researchers from the University of Bristol indicate that neuropilin-1 is an important host factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The team suggests that neuropilin-1 blockade may be a valuable therapeutic intervention in the treatment of COVID-19. Nikki Withers spoke to one of the study’s principal investigators, Dr. Yohei Yamauchi, to learn more about their findings.
Although coronavirus (CoV) associated pandemics have led to casualties in the past, COVID-19 has taken the world by surprise. “The main difference between the past outbreaks of CoV and this one is that SARS-CoV-2 is able to transmit between humans much more easily than others,” explained Yohei Yamauchi, virologist at the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine of the ‘University of Bristol in the UK.
His team, along with Peter Cullen and Boris Simonetti of Bristol’s School of Biochemistry, have potentially identified a mechanism that makes SARS-CoV-2 highly infectious and capable of spreading rapidly in human cells. Their results, published in Science,1 describe how the virus’s ability to infect human cells can be reduced by inhibitors that block a newly discovered interaction between the virus and the host, demonstrating a potential antiviral treatment.
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