Host OTUB2 and viral PLpro stabilize NSP8 to promote SARS-CoV-2 replication
Wenying Gao, Hongfei Wang, Jingguo Xin, Chenjia Gu, Lu Qiu, Xue Zhang, Chunlei Wang, Qingxiang Zhang, Shuai Li, Guangquan Li, Wenyan Zhang · 2026
Read Host OTUB2 and viral PLpro stabilize NSP8 to promote SARS-CoV-2 replication by Wenying Gao, Hongfei Wang, Jingguo Xin, Chenjia Gu, Lu Qiu, Xue Zhang, Chunlei Wang, Qingxiang Zhang, Shuai Li, Guangquan Li, Wenyan Zhang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13556338.txt.
Description
Wenying Gao and ten colleagues showed in 2026 that the coronavirus behind COVID-19 borrows a host enzyme to protect a key part of its copying machine. The protein NSP8 helps the virus replicate, and host defences normally tag such proteins for destruction with ubiquitin labels. A host enzyme called OTUB2 removes those labels, and the team traced its effects in infected cells and in a hamster model.
OTUB2 strips labels from NSP8 directly, keeping it stable. The same enzyme also protects the virus's own label-removing protease, which shields NSP8 a second way. Preserved NSP8 helps the virus mute the cell's interferon alarm, aiding spread. Blocking OTUB2 broke the protection, sharply cutting viral replication and disease severity in the animal model. The authors nominate OTUB2 as a target for host-directed antiviral drugs.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Wenying Gao, Hongfei Wang, Jingguo Xin, Chenjia Gu, Lu Qiu, Xue Zhang, Chunlei Wang, Qingxiang Zhang, Shuai Li, Guangquan Li, Wenyan Zhang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |