Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Live Imaging and Quantification of Viral Infection in K18 hACE2 Transgenic Mice Using Reporter-Expressing Recombinant SARS-CoV-2
Published on: November 5, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 ORF8: A Rapidly Evolving Immune and Viral Modulator in COVID-19
Ariana Arduini1,2, Frederique Laprise1,3, Chen Liang1,2,3
1Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E2, Canada.
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in upwards of 6.8 million deaths over the past three years, and the frequent emergence of variants continues to strain global health. Although vaccines have greatly helped mitigate disease severity, SARS-CoV-2 is likely to remain endemic, making it critical to understand its viral mechanisms contributing to pathogenesis and discover new antiviral therapeutics. To efficiently infect, this virus uses a diverse set of strategies to evade host immunity, accounting for its high pathogenicity and rapid spread throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Behind some of these critical host evasion strategies is the accessory protein Open Reading Frame 8 (ORF8), which has gained recognition in SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis due to its hypervariability, secretory property, and unique structure. This review discusses the current knowledge on SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 and proposes actualized functional models describing its pivotal roles in both viral replication and immune evasion. A better understanding of ORF8's interactions with host and viral factors is expected to reveal essential pathogenic strategies utilized by SARS-CoV-2 and inspire the development of novel therapeutics to improve COVID-19 disease outcomes.
Related Concept Videos
Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV) and Cancer
RSV is a retrovirus that contains two copies of a plus-strand RNA genome. Its genome consists of four main open...
Immune Response Against Viral Pathogens
NK Cells
NK cells are a crucial part of our innate immune system, acting as the first line of defense against viral infections. These cells can recognize and kill infected cells without prior exposure to the virus, effectively slowing down the spread of infection. Additionally, NK cells produce proinflammatory...
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs
Leaky Scanning
Viruses with RNA Genomes
Viral Mutations

