ArticleJournal of molecular cell biology2020
SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binds to bacterial lipopolysaccharide and boosts proinflammatory activity.
Article in Journal of molecular cell biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 110 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
110 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 167 citations in OpenAlex.
- COVID-19 and the Immune Response: A Multi-Phasic Approach to the Treatment of COVID-19.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Characterization of the Human Oropharyngeal Microbiomes in SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Recovery Patients.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2021Trial
- Dual mechanism of human ATG10S in suppressing MEF2A-Driven pro-inflammatory responses.Autophagy · 2026Article
- Surface cues shape procoagulant properties of amyloidogenic microclots.Cell death & disease · 2026Review
- Pathogen-Specific Regulation of Renin-Angiotensin System Genes in Epithelial Cells: A Comparative Study of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein N-Terminal Domain Fragment and Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Transkingdom Interactions Between Viruses and Bacteria: Implications for Wastewater Treatment Efficiency.Food and environmental virology · 2026Review
- Etiology Model of Kawasaki Disease and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndromes: Mast Cell Activation.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Article
- Radiofrequency Fields at 2.45 GHz Reprogram Mitochondria-Lysosome Crosstalk and Modulate the Survival/Death of Macrophages Exposed to LPS and/or the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Endotoxemia and its association with immune and coagulopathy responses in severe community-acquired pneumonia and COVID-19.Intensive care medicine experimental · 2026Article
- The conserved N-terminal histidine in an engineered peptide mediates sepsis treatment efficacy via dual binding to CD14 and LPS.Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy · 2026Article
- Drugs against broad-spectrum of coronaviruses.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines: intracellular processing and aggregation of the encoded spike protein as a mechanistic contributor to cardiac cellular stress.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Conservation of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide Binding by SARS-CoV-2 Spike across Major Viral Variants.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2-infected adipocytes drive adipose inflammation and hepatocyte lipid accumulation.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Proteomic Signatures of SARS-CoV-2 Susceptibility in Mexican Free-tailed Bats and Their Application to Viral Surveillance.Integrative and comparative biology · 2025Article
- Is meningococcal B vaccination needed in the post-COVID-19 world?Biomedica : revista del Instituto Nacional de Salud · 2025Review
- The relationship between respiratory tract infections caused by toxin-producing bacteria in burn patients during COVID-19: pathogenesis, diagnostics and novel therapies.Journal of medical microbiology · 2025Review
- Oral SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Risk for Long Covid.Reviews in medical virology · 2025Review
- Plasma Lipopolysaccharide-Binding Protein (LBP) Is Induced in Critically Ill Females with Gram-Negative Infections-Preliminary Study.Infectious disease reports · 2025Article
- Therapeutic effects of mesenchymal stromal cell secretome in liver fibrosis with acute lung injury.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2025Article
50 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is a link between high lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels in the blood and the metabolic syndrome, and metabolic syndrome predisposes patients to severe COVID-19. Here, we define an interaction between SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein and LPS, leading to aggravated inflammation in vitro and in vivo. Native gel electrophoresis demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 S protein binds to LPS. Microscale thermophoresis yielded a KD of ∼47 nM for the interaction. Computational modeling and all-atom molecular dynamics simulations further substantiated the experimental results, identifying a main LPS-binding site in SARS-CoV-2 S protein. S protein, when combined with low levels of LPS, boosted nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation in monocytic THP-1 cells and cytokine responses in human blood and peripheral blood mononuclear cells, respectively. The in vitro inflammatory response was further validated by employing NF-κB reporter mice and in vivo bioimaging. Dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and LPS-FITC analyses demonstrated that S protein modulated the aggregation state of LPS, providing a molecular explanation for the observed boosting effect. Taken together, our results provide an interesting molecular link between excessive inflammation during infection with SARS-CoV-2 and comorbidities involving increased levels of bacterial endotoxins.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.