COVID-19 is a tricksy beast . As shortly as you believe you ’ve get a grip on it , up pops some new random variable , or a previously unheard - of long - term consequence of infection – and witha few noteworthy exception , all we ’ve been doing for the last pair year is trying to keep up .

But sometimes , the deity of science will throw you a winnings . A new study , target at identify a more reliable elbow room to battle COVID-19 in the facial expression of virus variation and unvaccinated patients , has found that a certain protein , known as GRP78 , may hold the Florida key to controlling the virus ’s riposte rates .

“ We now have direct evidence , ” said research lead Amy S. Lee , a professor of biochemistry and molecular music at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California , in astatement . “ GRP78 is a proviral protein that is essential for the computer virus to repeat . ”

We already know that GRP78 was implicated in the spread of COVID-19 : it ’s what ’s known as a “ chaperone protein ” , andprevious studieshave shown it really helps SARS - CoV-2 , the virus that stimulate COVID-19 , to invade and infect legion cells . If you think of SARS - CoV-2’sinfamous spike proteinas the “ key fruit ” which open host cells’ACE2 protein“locks ” , then GRP78 is essentially the guy pointing at the door and yelling , “ Over here ! This is the one you could get into ! ”

So the team adjudicate to prove to shut this guy up . They used two different technique designed to inhibit or bottle up the GRP78 protein – one , tested on cubicle cultures of human lung epithelial cell , used a particular courier RNA peter to suppress its production , while the other was a small molecule drug key HA15 , recently developed as an anti - cancer drug .

“ Lo and behold , we found that this drug was very good in reducing the number and size of SARS - CoV-2 plaques produced in the septic cells , in secure battery-acid which had no harmful effect on normal cells , ” explain Lee .

Specifically , HA15 worksby inhibiting GRP78 – which hints at another tantalizing consequence of the study . It turns out GRP78 has a hand in more than just COVID-19 replication : it seems to be the protein thatmakes cancers more pestilent , and it ’s been implicated in other serious virus such as Ebola and Zika . This subject area , then , does n’t just provide a novel possible therapy against life-threatening COVID-19 – it ’s potentially a whole new way of fighting a plethora of diseases .

For now , though – particularly ascase numbers keep to surgeandnew variants of the virusseem unstoppable – it ’s the use against COVID-19 which is likely to make the headlines . With this new cogitation , the squad has bear witness that therapies targeting GRP78 could be more effective at protecting and do by people who constrict COVID-19 than vaccinum alone – particularly good news for those who ca n’t get vaccinated , but also of import give the virus’sbananas power to adaptand evade vaccine response .

“ A major trouble in fighting SARS - CoV-2 is that it is constantly mutate and adapt itself to more efficiently infect and multiply in its host cadre , ” said Lee . “ If we keep chamfer the computer virus around , this could become quite thought-provoking and irregular . ”

With the GRP78 protein , though , the team may have uncover a unavowed weapon . Lock it up ; stop it fraternizing with the enemy – and we might just get the advantage on the molecular stage .

The subject is published inNature Communications .