Nature Communications (Mar 2021)

Alpha-1 antitrypsin inhibits TMPRSS2 protease activity and SARS-CoV-2 infection

  • Lukas Wettstein,
  • Tatjana Weil,
  • Carina Conzelmann,
  • Janis A. Müller,
  • Rüdiger Groß,
  • Maximilian Hirschenberger,
  • Alina Seidel,
  • Susanne Klute,
  • Fabian Zech,
  • Caterina Prelli Bozzo,
  • Nico Preising,
  • Giorgio Fois,
  • Robin Lochbaum,
  • Philip Maximilian Knaff,
  • Volker Mailänder,
  • Ludger Ständker,
  • Dietmar Rudolf Thal,
  • Christian Schumann,
  • Steffen Stenger,
  • Alexander Kleger,
  • Günter Lochnit,
  • Benjamin Mayer,
  • Yasser B. Ruiz-Blanco,
  • Markus Hoffmann,
  • Konstantin M. J. Sparrer,
  • Stefan Pöhlmann,
  • Elsa Sanchez-Garcia,
  • Frank Kirchhoff,
  • Manfred Frick,
  • Jan Münch

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21972-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Here, via screening of a polypeptide library from bronchoalveolar lavage, the authors identify and characterize α1-antitrypsin (α1AT) as SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor and show that α1AT binds and inactivates the serine protease TMPRSS2, which enzymatically primes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein for membrane fusion.