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The Concept of the Crown and Its Potential Role in the Downfall of Coronavirus
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September 2020
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Source: Emerg Infect Dis. 26(9):2302-2305
[PDF-3.93 MB]
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Alternative Title:Emerg Infect Dis
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Description:Coronavirus virions are spherical or variable in shape and composed of an outer layer of lipid covered with a crown of club-shaped peplomers or spikes. Within each spike is a helical single-stranded RNA–containing structural protein. Although the term corona was first used in English in the 1500s, it was borrowed directly from the Latin word for “crown.” Corona is derived from the Ancient Greek κορώνη (korōnè), meaning “garland” or “wreath,” coming from a proto-Indo-European root, sker- or ker-, meaning “to turn” or “to bend.”
In the 1967 initial description of an electron microscopic image of a human common cold vi- rus, June Almeida (née Hart) and David Tyrrell described the surface of coronavirus particles as being “covered with a distinct layer of projections roughly 200Ǻ [20 nm] long....[with] a narrow stalk just in the limit of resolution of the microscope and a ‘head’ roughly 100Ǻ across”. In micrographs, the club-shaped spikes that stud the surface of corona- viruses are glycoproteins that give the appearance of a radiate crown.
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC7454052
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Volume:26
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Issue:9
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