title: Coronavirus non-structural protein 16: evasion, attenuation, and possible treatments.
abstract: The recent emergence of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), nearly a decade after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) CoV, highlights the importance of understanding and developing therapeutic treatment for current and emergent CoVs. This manuscript explores the role of NSP16, a 2'O-methyl-transferase (2'O-MTase), in CoV infection and the host immune response. The review highlights conserved motifs, required interaction partners, as well as the attenuation of NSP16 mutants, and restoration of these mutants in specific immune knockouts. Importantly, the work also identifies a number of approaches to exploit this understanding for therapeutic treatment and the data clearly illustrate the importance of NSP16 2'O-MTase activity for CoV infection and pathogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. Electronic address: vineet@email.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Vineet D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Menachery
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Kari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Debbink
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Ralph S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Baric
mesh_terms: D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D008780:Methyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D065207:Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; D008780:Methyltransferases
keywords: 2′O-MTase; 2′O-Methyl-transferase; CoV; MDA5; NSP16; SARS-CoV