A team of Mount Sinai researchers has produced a high-resolution crystal structure of an enzyme essential to the survival of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The discovery could lead to the design of critically needed new antivirals to combat current and future coronaviruses.
The enzyme, known as nsp14, has a crucially important region known as the RNA methyltransferase domain, which has eluded previous attempts by the scientific community to characterize its three-dimensional crystal structure. A paper describing the innovative process was published in the September 8 online edition of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.