SUMO: a novel target for anti-coronavirus therapy

ABSTRACT

Over the past 20 years, humankind has encountered three severe coronavirus outbreaks. Currently ongoing, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) was declared a pandemic due to its massive impact on global health and the economy. Numerous scientists are working to identify efficacious therapeutic agents for COVID-19, although treatment ability has yet to be demonstrated. The SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier) system has diverse roles in viral manipulation, but the function of SUMO in coronaviruses is still unknown. The objective of this review article is to present recently published data suggesting contributions of the host SUMO system to coronavirus infection. These findings underscore the potential of SUMO as a novel target for anti-coronavirus therapy, and the need for a deeper understanding of coronavirus pathology to prepare and prevail against the current and emerging coronavirus outbreaks.

KEYWORDS:

• SUMO/coronavirus/COVID-19/Therapy

Disclosure statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (no. 2020R1C1C1009367). English language editing was provided by Enago (https://www.enago.com/)