Electronic Biology of SARS-CoV-2 Virus

SARS-CoV-2 today is the most investigated virus with 93,575 peer-reviewed articles published until July 4, 2021 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=sars-cov-2).

The first of these articles was published on January 27, 2020

Use of the informational spectrum methodology for rapid biological analysis of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: prediction of potential receptor, natural reservoir, tropism and therapeutic/vaccine target.
Veljkovic V, Vergara-Alert J, Segalés J, Paessler S.F1000Res. 2020 Jan 27;9:52.
doi: 10.12688/f1000research.22149.4. eCollection 2020.

At the time of the publication of this article, the nucleotide sequence of the first SARS-CoV-2 virus hCoV-19/Wuhan/IVDC-HB-01/2019 (submitted to the GISAID on January 1, 2020) was the only publicly available information about this novel coronavirus. The analysis of this nucleotide sequence performed by the electronic biology tool, which is based only on the data from Mendeleev’s periodic table, revealed two essential properties of SARS-CoV-2 virus: (i) ACE2 protein as a receptor of SARS-CoV-2 and the actin-mediated cell-to-cell transmission of the virus.

The second article on SARS-CoV-2 was published on January 28, 2020
Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, et al. Genomic characterization of the 2019 novel human-pathogenic coronavirus isolated from a patient with atypical pneumonia after visiting Wuhan. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020; 9(1): 221–236.
Published online 2020 Jan 28. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1719902

Of note is that the first molecular analysis, performed by the same electronic biology tool, of the pandemic influenza virus pH1N1 and Ebola virus during the 2014-2015 outbreak in West Africa, were also published

Identification of hemagglutinin structural domain and polymorphisms which may modulate swine H1N1 interactions with human receptor
Veljkovic V, Niman HL, Glisic s, Veljkovic N, Perovic V, Muller CP
BMC Struct Biol. 2009; 9: 62.
Published online 2009 Sep 28. doi: 10.1186/1472-6807-9-62

In silico analysis suggests interaction between Ebola virus and the extracellular matrix
Veljkovic V, Glisic S, Muller CP, Scotch M, Branch DR, Perovic V, Sencanski M, Veljkovic N, Colombatti A.
Front Microbiol. 2015; 6: 135. Published online 2015 Feb 19. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.00135

Other articles on the electronic biology of COVID-19

Sencanski M, Perovic V, Pajovic SB, Adzic M, Paessler S, Glisic S. Drug Repurposing for Candidate SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors by a Novel In Silico Method.
Molecules. 2020;25(17):3830.

Glisic S, Perovic VR, Sencanski M, Paessler S, Veljkovic V.J Biological Rationale for the Repurposing of BCG Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.
Proteome Res. 2020;19(11):4649-4654.

Veljkovic V, Perovic V, Paessler S. Prediction of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine candidates. F1000Research 2020, 9:365.

Veljkovic V, Perovic V, Chambers I, Paessler S. Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 virus and assessment of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine. F1000Research 2021,10:28.