Figure 2.

Lethal mutagenesis induction by molnupiravir during severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) replication. The RdRp complex has exoribonuclease (ExoN) and nsp10, which have proofreading activity and function. SARS‐CoV‐2 enters host cell via the ACE2 receptor and RdRp translation is initiated by the host cell ribosome (1). RdRp is used to replicate viral genomic RNA (gRNA), where competition between M and natural C occurs (3), resulting in the misincorporation of the nucleoside and consequently causing lethal mutagenesis (4). C—cytosine, CTP—C‐triphosphate, A—adenine, G—guanine, U—uracil, M—NHC‐5'‐monophosphate, ACE2—angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2, RdRp—RNA‐dependent RNA polymerase, and ExoN—exoribonuclease.