Assembly of Coronaviruses and CoV-Like-Particles

Developing SARS-CoV-2 virus-like particles assemblyVirus-like particle assembly (VLPs) systems is fundamental to understanding the biophysical principles of assembly and applying them in the biomedical and biotechnology fields. However, given that SARS-CoV-2 virions are enveloped, and the four structural proteins interact with each other at the viral membrane, the in vitro assemblyIn vitro assembly of these VLPs from recombinant and purified proteins is extremely challenging. The current assembly systems are based on the co-transfection of cultured cells with multiple plasmids. One problem with this approach is that not all cells produce all the structural proteins. Furthermore, the yield of assembly and the morphology of the VLPs seems to depend on the type of cells used. Also, the fusion of tag proteins with structural proteins can affect the biological activity of the VLPs. Despite these problems, the production of Coronavirus VLPs has been crucial to understanding the minimal requirements for assembly and RNA packaging. Nonetheless, further studies are required to optimize these systems to increase the yield of assembly and the homogeneity of the VLPs. This optimization would allow an understanding of the specific interaction that gives rise to the assembly and selective packaging of the genomic RNA.