Structural and functional characterization of NEMO cleavage by SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro.
Hameedi, M.A., T Prates, E., Garvin, M.R., Mathews, I.I., Amos, B.K., Demerdash, O., Bechthold, M., Iyer, M., Rahighi, S., Kneller, D.W., Kovalevsky, A., Irle, S., Vuong, V.Q., Mitchell, J.C., Labbe, A., Galanie, S., Wakatsuki, S., Jacobson, D.(2022) Nat Commun 13: 5285-5285
- PubMed: 36075915 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32922-9
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7T2T, 7T2U, 7T2V - PubMed Abstract: 
In addition to its essential role in viral polyprotein processing, the SARS-CoV-2 3C-like protease (3CLpro) can cleave human immune signaling proteins, like NF-κB Essential Modulator (NEMO) and deregulate the host immune response. Here, in vitro assays show that SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro cleaves NEMO with fine-tuned efficiency. Analysis of the 2.50 Å resolution crystal structure of 3CLpro C145S bound to NEMO 226-234 reveals subsites that tolerate a range of viral and host substrates through main chain hydrogen bonds while also enforcing specificity using side chain hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic contacts. Machine learning- and physics-based computational methods predict that variation in key binding residues of 3CLpro-NEMO helps explain the high fitness of SARS-CoV-2 in humans. We posit that cleavage of NEMO is an important piece of information to be accounted for, in the pathology of COVID-19.
Organizational Affiliation: 
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Structural Molecular Biology, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA.