RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein hijacks VEGF-A/Neuropilin-1 receptor signaling to induce analgesia
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.07.17.209288
DO 10.1101/2020.07.17.209288
A1 Moutal, Aubin
A1 Martin, Laurent F.
A1 Boinon, Lisa
A1 Gomez, Kimberly
A1 Ran, Dongzhi
A1 Zhou, Yuan
A1 Stratton, Harrison J.
A1 Cai, Song
A1 Luo, Shizhen
A1 Gonzalez, Kerry Beth
A1 Perez-Miller, Samantha
A1 Patwardhan, Amol
A1 Ibrahim, Mohab M.
A1 Khanna, Rajesh
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/18/2020.07.17.209288.abstract
AB Global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues unabated. Binding of SARS-CoV-2’s Spike protein to host angiotensin converting enzyme 2 triggers viral entry, but other proteins may participate, including neuropilin-1 receptor (NRP-1). As both Spike protein and vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) – a pronociceptive and angiogenic factor, bind NRP-1, we tested if Spike could block VEGF-A/NRP-1 signaling. VEGF-A–triggered sensory neuronal firing was blocked by Spike protein and NRP-1 inhibitor EG00229. Pro-nociceptive behaviors of VEGF-A were similarly blocked via suppression of spontaneous spinal synaptic activity and reduction of electrogenic currents in sensory neurons. Remarkably, preventing VEGF-A/NRP-1 signaling was antiallodynic in a neuropathic pain model. A ‘silencing’ of pain via subversion of VEGF-A/NRP-1 signaling may underlie increased disease transmission in asymptomatic individuals.One Sentence Summary SARS-CoV-2’s Spike protein promotes analgesia by interfering with VEGF-A/NRP1 pathway, which may affect disease transmission dynamics.Competing Interest StatementR. Khanna is the co-founder of Regulonix LLC, a company developing non-opioids drugs for chronic pain. In addition, R. Khanna has patents US10287334 and US10441586 issued to Regulonix LLC. The other authors declare no competing financial interests.