Influenza virus and coronavirus: Cellular binding and internalization

Abstract

Viruses are acellular organisms that must be parasitized in living cells and proliferated by replication. Although different viruses invade cells in different ways, they mainly initiate the invasion process through binding to specific receptor proteins or lipid structures on the cell surface for the following cellular internalization. Thus revealing the interaction process and underlying mechanism between viruses and cell membranes will be helpful in developing targeted drugs or vaccines from the source. In this review, the influenza virus and coronavirus are taken for example. We will first discuss the structure of influenza viruses, their binding modes with cell membranes, the way of realizing cell endocytosis and the cytokines involved in this process. After that, recent research progress of coronavirus especially the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, including its structural characteristics, its binding with cell receptor ACE2 and the following cellular internalization, is briefly introduced.