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Updated: Sep 19, 2025
Engineering Antiviral Agents via Surface Plasmon Resonance
Published on: June 14, 2022
Identification of Pan-Coronavirus Neutralizing Aptamers Through CRISmers Targeting the Conserved Fusion Peptide
Ju Zhang1,2,3, Airu Zhu4, Shixian Wei1,2,3,5
1State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Abstract:
A series of coronavirus outbreaks emphasize the necessity to develop pan-coronavirus therapeutics. Previously, the CRISmers system is developed, a Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR/Cas)-mediated cellular screening platform for the identification of RNA aptamers. In this study, CRISmers are applied to target the fusion peptide (FP) of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a conserved region across coronavirus genera, with E.coli serving as the screening host. From this approach, a lead aptamer, #FP-10 is identified, which demonstrates potent pan-coronavirus neutralization activity against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants and alphacoronaviruses (HCoV-229E and HCoV-NL63), demonstrating its potential for development into a broad-spectrum therapeutic candidate.
Insights
Researchers developed a new aptamer using the CRISmers system to target the conserved fusion peptide of SARS-CoV-2. This pan-coronavirus aptamer shows broad neutralization activity against multiple variants and other coronaviruses.
Area of Science:
- Virology
- Molecular Biology
- Drug Discovery
Background:
- The emergence of coronavirus outbreaks necessitates the development of broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics.
- The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR/Cas)-mediated CRISmers platform facilitates RNA aptamer identification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To apply the CRISmers system for identifying pan-coronavirus RNA aptamers targeting the conserved fusion peptide (FP) of SARS-CoV-2.
- To evaluate the therapeutic potential of identified aptamers against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the CRISmers cellular screening platform with E.coli as the host system.
- Targeted the highly conserved fusion peptide (FP) region of SARS-CoV-2.
- Screened for RNA aptamers with neutralization capabilities.
Main Results:
- Identified a lead aptamer, designated #FP-10.
- #FP-10 demonstrated potent pan-coronavirus neutralization activity.
- Activity was confirmed against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants and alphacoronaviruses (HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63).
Conclusions:
- The identified aptamer #FP-10 exhibits broad-spectrum antiviral activity against clinically relevant coronaviruses.
- This aptamer holds significant potential for development into a pan-coronavirus therapeutic candidate.
- The CRISmers platform is effective for discovering novel antiviral aptamers.
