Zhiyi Liao, Chaoming Wang, Xiaopeng Tang, Mengli Yang, Zilei Duan, Lei Liu, Shuaiyao Lu, Lei Ma, Ruomei Cheng, Gan Wang, Hongqi Liu, Shuo Yang, Jingwen Xu, Dawit Adisu Tadese, James Mwangi, Peter Muiruri Kamau, Zhiye Zhang, Lian Yang, Guoyang Liao, Xudong Zhao, Xiaozhong Peng, Ren Lai
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been detected in almost all organs of coronavirus disease-19 patients, although some organs do not express angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), a known receptor of SARS-CoV-2, implying the presence of alternative receptors and/or co-receptors. Here, we show that the ubiquitously distributed human transferrin receptor (TfR), which binds to diferric transferrin to traffic between membrane and endosome for the iron delivery cycle, can ACE2-independently mediate SARS-CoV-2 infection...
March 5, 2024: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America