gms | German Medical Science

International Conference on SARS - one year after the (first) outbreak

08. - 11.05.2004, Lübeck

Characterization of the 3a protein of SARS-associated coronavirus in infected Vero E6 cells and SARS patients

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Bing Sun - Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
  • Jiarui Wu - Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
  • Rong Zeng - Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
  • Rui-Fu Yang - Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

International Conference on SARS - one year after the (first) outbreak. Lübeck, 08.-11.05.2004. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2004. Doc04sars6.02

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/sars2004/04sars026.shtml

Published: May 26, 2004

© 2004 Sun et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


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A protein encoded by ORF 3a of SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) genome is identified by proteomic approaches. Immuno-blotting results indicate that interchain disulfide bonds might be formed between this protein and the spike protein. ELISA assay shows that sera from SARS patients have significant positive reactions with synthesized peptides derived from the 3a protein. Interestingly, the ELISA-results of the 3a protein are concordant with that of a spike protein-derived peptide. In addition, a tendency of co-mutation between the 3a protein and the spike protein of SARS-CoV isolates is also observed, suggesting that the function of the 3a protein is correlated with the spike protein. Taken together, the 3a protein might be tightly correlated to the spike protein in the SARS-CoV functions. The 3a protein may sever as a new clinical marker or drug target of SARS.