On October 23, the university's renal research team published a research paper entitled Tight junction protein LSR is a host defense factor against SARS-CoV-2 infection in the small intestine in The EMBO Journal. The findings offer potential targets and directions for developing therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 variants.
In devising effective preventive and therapeutic strategies against viral infections, the identification of host factors with antiviral potential is of paramount importance. Recently, employing a variety of validation systems—including genetically engineered immortalized cell lines, organoids, ex vivo tissues, and humanized ACE2 mouse models—the team discovered that the tight junction protein LSR serves as a critical host defense factor against SARS-CoV-2 infection in the small intestine. Moreover, the study revealed that an LSR-derived short peptide can inhibit the binding of the spike protein to the ACE2 receptor in vitro. These discoveries not only unveil a novel function of LSR in host defense against SARS-CoV-2 but also offer potential applications for broad-spectrum therapeutic and interventional strategies targeting coronavirus variants based on short peptides.
Associate Professor An Yanan from the Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences; Dr. Wang Chao, a postdoctoral fellow at the Second Hospital of Shandong University; Wang Ziqi, a graduate student specializing in Medical Physiology from the 2021 cohort; and Professor Kong Feng from Shandong Provincial Hospital are co-first authors of the paper. Professor Zhao Shengtian from Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Professor Gong Yongfeng from the School of Basic Medical Sciences, and Professor Lei Jie from the Shandong Center for Disease Control and Prevention are co-corresponding authors. This research was supported by multiple projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation General Program, the Shandong Province Taishan Scholar Distinguished Expert Program, the Major Basic Research Project of the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, and the Binzhou Medical University Scientific Research Start-up Fund.
Full text link: https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038/s44318-024-00281-4
BY: Zhang Li
SOURCE: School of Basic Medical Sciences
