Figure 6. Vimentin’s involvement in spike 2-ACE2 interactions.

(a) Cell surface vimentin acts as a co-receptor that enhances binding to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in either direct fusion or endocytic pathways to enhance wrapping and endocytosis of the virus. A molecular dynamics simulation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at an elastic shell membrane shows that binding of extracellular vimentin with the virus spike protein facilitates wrapping of cell membrane around the virus. Both the fraction of spikes bound to surface vimentin (b) and the degree of membrane wrapping (c) increases as the number density of surface vimentin increases. Finite membrane bending rigidity (40 k_B T, blue squares) enhances wrapping compared to the case without bending rigidity (0 k_B T, red circles).