Molecular Mimicry between SARS Coronavirus Spike Protein and Human Protein

Molecular mimicry defined as similar structures shared by molecules from dissimilar genes or by their protein products, is a general strategy for pathogens to infect host cells. Therefore, identification of the molecular mimic regions of a pathogen may be helpful to understand the disease. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a new human respiratory infectious disease caused by SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). The virus uses the spike (S) protein to interact with the angiotensin converting enzyme 2, the host cell receptor. Our approach is to design a workflow with multiple bioinformatics tools in analyzing the sequence of spike protein of the SARS-CoV in searching its similarity to human proteins. Furthermore, eleven peptides have been synthesized to validate the in silico results.