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  • Presence of a SARS-CoV‑2 Pr...
    Jana, Asis K; Greenwood, Augustus B; Hansmann, Ulrich H. E

    The journal of physical chemistry. B, 08/2021, Letnik: 125, Številka: 32
    Journal Article

    A marker for the severeness and disease progress of COVID-19 is overexpression of serum amyloid A (SAA) to levels that in other diseases are associated with a risk for SAA amyloidosis. To understand whether SAA amyloidosis could also be a long-term risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections, we have used long all-atom molecular dynamic simulations to study the effect of a SARS-CoV-2 protein segment on SAA amyloid formation. Sampling over 40 μs, we find that the presence of the nine-residue segment SK9, located at the C-terminus of the envelope protein, increases the propensity for SAA fibril formation by three mechanisms: it reduces the stability of the lipid-transporting hexamer shifting the equilibrium toward monomers, it increases the frequency of aggregation-prone configurations in the resulting chains, and it raises the stability of SAA fibrils. Our results therefore suggest that SAA amyloidosis and related pathologies may be a long-term risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections.