Volume 31, No 7, Jul 2021

ISSN: 1001-0602 
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018 
impact factor 17.848* 
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)

Volume 31 Issue 7, July 2021: 818-820

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein interacts with and activates TLR41

Yingchi Zhao¹ , Ming Kuang¹ , Junhong Li² , Ling Zhu² , Zijing Jia² , Xuefei Guo¹ , Yaling Hu³ , Jun Kong⁴ , Hang Yin⁴ , Xiangxi Wang^2,* , Fuping You^,*

¹Institute of Systems Biomedicine, Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Tumor Systems Biology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 10019, China
²University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, National Laboratory of Macromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
³Sinovac Biotech Ltd, Beijing 100085, China
⁴School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
These authors contributed equally: Yingchi Zhao, Ming Kuang, Junhong Li, Ling Zhu Correspondence: Xiangxi Wang(xiangxi@ibp.ac.cn)Fuping You(fupingyou@hsc.pku.edu.cn)

Dear Editor,

Accumulating clinical data suggest the main causes of death by COVID-19 include respiratory failure and the onset of sepsis.1 Importantly, sepsis has been observed in nearly all deceased patients.2,3,4,5 It remains elusive how SARS-CoV-2 infection results in viral sepsis in humans. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) mediates anti-gram-negative bacterial immune responses by recognizing lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from bacteria.6 We recently found that SARS-CoV-2 infection provoked an anti-bacterial like response at the very early stage of infection via TLR4. However, the identity of the original trigger initiating these abnormal immune responses during SARS-CoV-2 infection is unknown.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-021-00495-9

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