New Consensus pattern in Spike CoV-2: potential implications in coagulation process and cell–cell fusion
Silvia Buonvino, Sonia Melino
Abstract
Coagulopathy and syncytial formation are relevant effects of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, but the underlying molecular mechanisms triggering these processes are not fully elucidated. Here, we identified a potential consensus pattern in the Spike S glycoprotein present within the cytoplasmic domain; this consensus pattern was detected in only 79 out of 561,000 proteins (UniProt bank). Interestingly, the pattern was present in both human and bat the coronaviruses S proteins, in many proteins involved in coagulation process, cell-cell interaction, protein aggregation and regulation of cell fate, such as von Willebrand factor, coagulation factor X, fibronectin and Notch, characterized by the presence of the cysteine-rich EGF-like domain. This finding may suggest functional similarities between the matched proteins and the CoV-2 S protein, implying a new possible involvement of the S protein in the molecular mechanism that leads to the coagulopathy and cell fusion in COVID-19 disease.