Human Nutrition & Metabolism (Dec 2023)
Comparison between Amino Acid Profiling of Structural Proteins of earliest and recent omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 and Nutritional Burden on COVID-19 patients
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has four structural proteins. Inside human host cell, it replicates, for which each requires all the structural proteins, and to generate these, entire requirement of amino acids is borne by the host. There is no data regarding amino acid profiling, variation in strains, and its actual burden on the human host. Profiling, with its therapeutic utility, was studied using genomics and proteomics of earliest Wuhan strain and was compared with the recent emerging heavily mutated variant of concern, Omicron. With each replicating SARS-CoV-2 consuming a considerable percentage of essential amino acids (EAAs), coronavirus infection causes huge burden of EAAs on the entire human body in generating billions and billions of SARS-CoV-2 and can cause depletion of body protein stores. The complete amino acid profiling of the structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 can act as benchmark for designing the correct nutritional supplements for the management of nutritional burden on the patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.