Protease-mediated enhancement of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection

TLDR

SARS‑CoV causes life‑threatening SARS, but the mechanism of its severe respiratory illness remains unclear, with recent work indicating it uses an endosomal entry pathway. The study proposes a mechanism for the extensive organ damage caused by SARS‑CoV. Proteases such as trypsin, thermolysin, and elastase enable the virus to enter cells directly at the surface, yielding a 100‑to‑1,000‑fold higher infection efficiency than the endosomal route and driving high viral replication and severe lung damage.

Abstract

A unique coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) was revealed to be a causative agent of a life-threatening SARS. Although this virus grows in a variety of tissues that express its receptor, the mechanism of the severe respiratory illness caused by this virus is not well understood. Here, we report a possible mechanism for the extensive damage seen in the major target organs for this disease. A recent study of the cell entry mechanism of SARS-CoV reveals that it takes an endosomal pathway. We found that proteases such as trypsin and thermolysin enabled SARS-CoV adsorbed onto the cell surface to enter cells directly from that site. This finding shows that SARS-CoV has the potential to take two distinct pathways for cell entry, depending on the presence of proteases in the environment. Moreover, the protease-mediated entry facilitated a 100- to 1,000-fold higher efficient infection than did the endosomal pathway used in the absence of proteases. These results suggest that the proteases produced in the lungs by inflammatory cells are responsible for high multiplication of SARS-CoV, which results in severe lung tissue damage. Likewise, elastase, a major protease produced in the lungs during inflammation, also enhanced SARS-CoV infection in cultured cells.