Coronavirus RNA, Host Protein Interactions Collected in CovInter Database

For a paper appearing in Nucleic Acids Research, a team from Zhejiang University, Fudan University, and other centers presents an "interaction data between coronavirus RNAs and host proteins" (CovInter) database that tallies such viral RNA-host protein interactions, along with the possible consequences of these interactions. After focusing in on almost 10,200 coronavirus RNA-host protein interactions involving more than 300 viral RNAs and nearly 1,300 host proteins found through a systematic literature review, the researchers considered the pathways, functions, and expression patterns associated with the interacting host proteins. While more than 400 host proteins appeared to have anti-viral functions, for example, more than 350 proteins appeared to be pro-viral. "Given the devastating and persistent threat of coronaviruses, CovInter is highly expected to fill the gap in the whole process of the 'molecular arms race' between viruses and their hosts, which will then aid in the discovery of new antiviral therapies," the authors suggest.