Computational investigation for endocytosis of CoVID-19 virus SARS-CoV-2 in cell membrane

• Published in: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part C, Journal of mechanical engineering science Journal of mechanical engineering science, 2021-12, Vol.235 (24), p.7331-7342
• Main Authors: Mukherjee, Soumya, Mahata, Paritosh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cell membranes; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Curvature; Elastic anisotropy; Finite element method; Lipids; Proteins; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Viral diseases; Viruses
• ISSN: 0954-4062; 2041-2983
• DOI: 10.1177/09544062211029984

CoVID-19 virus SARS-CoV-2 follows the endocytosis process to enter inside a cell to infect it. It is important to study the endocytosis of SARS-CoV-2 in cell membrane to prevent the pandemic of CoVID-19. In this paper we develop a finite element based computational model for endocytosis of SARS-CoV-2 in cell membrane and determine curvature generation on it during the process. The virus SARS-CoV-2 is modeled as a rigid spherical particle and cell membrane as an anisotropic elastic material, while its fluidic nature due to lipid exchange with infinite reservoir is preserved using suitable conditions. With the help of a contact pair created between the virus particle and cell membrane, endocytosis process is computationally studied and the curvature of membrane is evaluated as the time progresses during the endocytosis process. At the tip of the virus particle and half-radius distance from it, the membrane follows the curvature of virus very quickly. However, it takes more time for the membrane point located at a distance equal to the radius of the virus particle. This is compensated by the cytoplasmic peripheral proteins binding onto the inside surface of the cell membrane. The role of cytoplasmic peripheral BAR proteins is investigated by using a linear curvature-coupling model with protein concentrations. It is observed that F-BAR protein is more sensitive to the curvature of virus particle in comparison to the other BAR proteins. The sensitiveness deteriorates as the curvature is increased.