Abstract
The newly emerged Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is becoming another "SARS-like" threat to the world. It has an extremely high death rate (~50%) as there is no vaccine or efficient therapeutics. The identification of the structures of both the MERS-CoV receptor binding domain (RBD) and its complex with dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), raises the hope of alleviating this currently severe situation. In this review, we examined the molecular basis of the RBD-receptor interaction to outline why/how could we use MERS-CoV RBD to develop vaccines and antiviral drugs.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 143-147 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Journal of the Formosan Medical Association |
Volume | 113 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- coronavirus
- drug design
- Middle East
- vaccines