SARS Envelope Protein antibody

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus referred to as SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). SARS was first reported in Asia in February 2003. Over the next few months, the illness spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before the SARS global outbreak of 2003 was contained. SARS-CoV is transmitted from person to person by close personal contact such as via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The genomes of these viruses are positive-stranded RNA approximately 27-31kb long. The envelope (E) protein is the smallest of the major structural SARS proteins. During virus replication, E is expressed in the infected cell, but only a small portion of it is incorporated into the virus envelope. The majority of E protein is found at the site of intracellular trafficking (i.e. ER, Golgi) where it plays a role in virus assembly and budding.