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Description

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), formerly known as 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease, is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, a virus closely related to the SARS virus. The disease is the cause of the 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak. The structure of 2019-nCoV consists of the following: a spike protein (S), hemagglutinin-esterease dimer (HE), a membrane glycoprotein (M), an envelope protein (E) a nucleoclapid protein (N) and RNA. The membrane (M) protein or matrix protein is the most abundant structural protein and defines the shape of the viral envelope. It is an integral membrane protein involved in the budding of the viral particles and interacts with S (Spike) protein. It involves in organization of the nucleoprotein inside, which includes many copies of the N (nucleocapsid) protein bound to the genomic RNA. The M protein holds dominant cellular immunogenicity and has been determined as a protective antigen in humoral responses, which suggests it would serve as a potential target in vaccine design.