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| Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the third highly pathogenic human coronavirus after SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. SARS-CoV-2 can not only cause flu-like symptoms such as cough, fever, fatigue and sore limbs, but also lead to complications such as pulmonary fibrosis, acute kidney injury and neurodegenerative diseases in partial patients. As the most abundant protein in SARS-CoV-2, N protein participates in the packaging and transcription of viral RNA, and moreover plays important roles in affecting host cell homeostasis. Previous researches demostrated that N protein triggers activation of the Smad3 signaling pathway through the p21‐ dependent G1 cell cycle arrest mechanism which leads to cell death, N protein also inhibits GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis to inhibit the release of IL-1β. N protein regulating host cell antiviral immune response through NF-κB, JAK-STAT and other signaling pathways has been revealed. In addition, studies have proven that N protein is associated with many complications, such as Parkinson\'s disease, pulmonary fibrosis and so on. In this review, we describe the known structure of SARS-CoV-2 N protein, its role in packaging viral RNA and effects on host cell homeostasis. |
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| Keywords:SARS-CoV-2; nucleocapsid protein; Lewy bodies |
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