SARS-CoV-1 Membrane Protein Antibody #74471

The cause of the SARS epidemic in 2003 was a novel pathogenic coronavirus, originally termed SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus) (1). Following the 2019 emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV is now often referred to as SARS-CoV-1. SARS-CoV-1 is a member of the Coronaviridae family of single-stranded RNA viruses (2). The genome of SARS-CoV-1 is relatively large among viruses (~30 kDa); it encodes four key structural proteins (spike, envelope, membrane, and nucleocapsid) that make up the virion particle, in addition to a variety of smaller open reading frames (ORFs) that encode the accessory proteins required for viral replication (3). The SARS-CoV-1 membrane protein (M) is the most abundant protein in the viral envelope; in addition to its structural role, it plays an important role in virus-host interactions and the viral lifecycle (4). Notably, studies have shown that membrane proteins from both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 may induce apoptosis in host cells, suggesting one mechanism by which SARS coronaviruses cause tissue damage upon infection (5,6).