Coronavirus

The Coronavirus team was (re)established in 2020, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. The three outbreaks of highly pathogenic human coronaviruses since 2002 (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2) have demonstrated the importance of these pathogens for human health. They are also major pathogens in veterinary medicine, affecting both domestic and farm animals, with sometimes significant repercussions for the agricultural sector. We are developing several lines of research to understand the pathophysiology, transmission, and entry of these viruses into cells. Our main models are SARS-CoV-2 and porcine coronaviruses, and we are also  extending some of our research to pneumoviruses such as RSV and murine pneumovirus.

Our activity is mainly focused on 3 axes:

Respiratory viruses primarly target the nasal cavity housing mainly respiratory epithelium but also the olfactory epithelium ensuring the first step of odour detection. We were able to show on the hamster model that infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to massive desquamation of the olfactory epithelium, which explains the symptom of anosmia often seen in patients with COVID-19. We seek to understand the cellular origins of this phenomenon to develop therapeutic approaches as well as extend our results more generally to the relationships between respiratory viruses and the nasal cavity.

Coronaviruses are characterized by the presence of the protein Spike at their surface. This protein ensures the entry of the virus by fusion with the membrane of the target cells. We are using different cellular assays (pseudoviruses, cell-cell fusion system) to 1) determine the cellular and molecular determinants of the Spike-induced fusion and 2) to functionnaly and structurally characterize the effect of various ligands on this fusion process.

As the protein Spike is essential for the virus entry, it can be targeted to develop antiviral ligands. We characterized different peptidic ligands targeting the Spike of SARS-CoV-2 with antiviral properties and expand this with computational approaches as well as increasing the resident time of such ligands in the nasal cavity.  

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