{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,24]],"date-time":"2026-02-24T20:56:16Z","timestamp":1771966576346,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,8]],"date-time":"2022-10-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1665187200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"China Postdoctoral Science Foundation","award":["2021M701594"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021M701594"]}]},{"name":"China Postdoctoral Science Foundation","award":["No.2021B1212030014"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No.2021B1212030014"]}]},{"name":"Guangdong Science and Technology Program Key Projects","award":["2021M701594"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021M701594"]}]},{"name":"Guangdong Science and Technology Program Key Projects","award":["No.2021B1212030014"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No.2021B1212030014"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by SARS-CoV-2; the spike protein is a key structural protein that mediates infection of the host by SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of signal peptide on the secretion and release of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Therefore, we constructed a signal peptide deletion mutant and three signal peptide site-directed mutants. The (H) region and (C) region in the signal peptide of L5F-S13I mutant have changed significantly, compared with wild type, L5F and S13I. We demonstrated the effects of signal peptide on the secretion and synthesis of RBD protein, finding that mutation of S13 to I13 on the signal peptide is more conducive to the secretion of RBD protein, which was mainly due to the shift of the signal peptide cleavage site in the mutant S13I. Here, we not only investigated the structure of the N-terminal signal peptide of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein but also considered possible secretory pathways. We suggest that the development of drugs that target the signal peptide of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein may have potential to treat COVID-19 in the future.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules27196688","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,9]],"date-time":"2022-10-09T23:31:43Z","timestamp":1665358303000},"page":"6688","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Effects of a Shift of the Signal Peptide Cleavage Site in Signal Peptide Variant on the Synthesis and Secretion of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Zhikai","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xuan","family":"Wan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Chronic Airways Diseases Laboratory, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xinyue","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chengsong","family":"Wan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"BSL-3 Laboratory (Guangdong), Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"760","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMe2001126","article-title":"Another Decade, Another Coronavirus","volume":"382","author":"Perlman","year":"2020","journal-title":"N. 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