File:Fimmu-11-616595-g001.jpg

English: FIGURE 1 SARS-CoV-2 life cycle and antiviral targets. SARS-CoV-2 infection initiates from viral binding to the host cell receptors angiotensin conversion enzyme 2 (ACE2) or CD147. The virus enters the cell either through endocytosis (1a), after which the virus is processed by endosomal proteases and fuses with endosomal membrane, or direct fusion with the plasma membrane in the presence of transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) (1b). Viral genome is released into the cytoplasm (2) and translated to polyprotein 1ab (pp1ab) and polyprotein 1a (pp1a) (3). Pp1a and pp1ab are further cleaved into 16 nonstructural proteins (nsp1-16) by the viral papain like protease (PLpro, nsp3) and 3C-like protease (3CLpro, nsp5) (4). Viral replication is initiated by replication complex (Nsp12-14) and RNA methyltransferase (nsp14, nsp16) in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) (5). After which, new viral particles are assembled in the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC) (6) followed by spike protein glycosylation and maturation in the Golgi apparatus (7). Finally, progeny virions are released from the host cell through exocytosis (8). Created with Biorender.com.