The SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site – what is it?
By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
And do you care anyway? I wouldn’t blame you for not caring. After all it sounds ridiculous which is evident once one examines articles about it.
I see people refer to it, those who are thinking they sound knowledgeable by using such intellectually sounding words.
Anyway, I thought I had better put this one to bed as if nothing else I have an idea for something amusing. When you see the wording of academic articles you should see what I mean.
I cannot quickly find a definition and Wikipedia only deals with it indirectly via this link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furin
Structure of the FURIN protein. Based on PyMOL rendering of PDB 1p8j
By Emw – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8814334
You can see from the above image that furin is a protein. It is of course a coloured rendering of something that would no doubt look very dull. The image reminds me of a mass of tagliatelle.
It could also be Neil Ferguson’s convoluted statistics on COVID 19 which were referred to as spaghetti code by some.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/06/brutal-takedown-of-fergusons-model/
As regards the Wikipedia article I will try and summarise it in simple English.
Definition
Furin is a protein called a protease, a molecule that speeds up a chemical process.
It cleaves, i.e. cuts up, other proteins so they become activated.
Therefore a furin cleavage site is where such activity is taking place.
All of which is reasonable I suppose, cutting up materials to create something else of use. In relation to the coronavirus there are some articles which will explain it.
Badly.
Like all such articles they use jargon so that the hoi polloi struggle to follow what the heck they are talking about.
Academic articles
Here’s one from The Lancet.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(23)00144-1/fulltext
The SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site: natural selection or smoking gun?
August 2023
It says at the start
SARS-CoV-2 has continued to evolve as it moves through the population, and we have learned more about its pathogenicity and transmission determinants. As previously commented in The Lancet Microbe, one of these determinants is the unusual furin cleavage site (FCS) on its spike protein. While it has been proposed that the FCS might have been engineered, it is becoming clearer that natural selection is, in fact, the driving factor in its acquisition and functionality, through recombination and epistasis.
They haven’t a clue these people. They believe in evolutionary theory as the determinant of how things are made and have mistaken cellular debris, waste arising from body processes, for something disease causing.
Here’s an article from Nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-021-00908-w
The furin cleavage site in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is required for transmission in ferrets
27 April 2021
Ferrets I ask you, what ever will they come up with next?! Anyway, here is the bulk of the abstract. I have not tried to insert paragraphs spacing, this is how it comes on the webpage. I hope you don’t get a headache if you read it.
SARS-CoV-2 entry requires sequential cleavage of the spike glycoprotein at the S1/S2 and the S2ʹ cleavage sites to mediate membrane fusion. SARS-CoV-2 has a polybasic insertion (PRRAR) at the S1/S2 cleavage site that can be cleaved by furin. Using lentiviral pseudotypes and a cell-culture-adapted SARS-CoV-2 virus with an S1/S2 deletion, we show that the polybasic insertion endows SARS-CoV-2 with a selective advantage in lung cells and primary human airway epithelial cells, but impairs replication in Vero E6, a cell line used for passaging SARS-CoV-2. Using engineered spike variants and live virus competition assays and by measuring growth kinetics, we find that the selective advantage in lung and primary human airway epithelial cells depends on the expression of the cell surface protease TMPRSS2, which enables endosome-independent virus entry by a route that avoids antiviral IFITM proteins. SARS-CoV-2 virus lacking the S1/S2 furin cleavage site was shed to lower titres from infected ferrets and was not transmitted to cohoused sentinel animals, unlike wild-type virus.
What a load of jargonised bollox! And here’s one more from Oxford academic.
The Emergence of the Spike Furin Cleavage Site in SARS-CoV-2
Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 2022
Published: 12 November 2021
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/39/1/msab327/6426085
Abstract
Compared with other SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs), SARS-CoV-2 possesses a unique furin cleavage site (FCS) in its spike. This has stimulated discussion pertaining to the origin of SARS-CoV-2 because the FCS has been observed to be under strong selective pressure in humans and confers the enhanced ability to infect some cell types and induce cell–cell fusion. Furthermore, scientists have demonstrated interest in studying novel cleavage sites by introducing them into SARSr-CoVs. We review what is known about the SARS-CoV-2 FCS in the context of its pathogenesis, origin, and how future wildlife coronavirus sampling may alter the interpretation of existing data.
You can read further if you wish but it makes no conclusions, it is merely a discussion by the blinded research scientists who can’t see the wood for the trees.
Summary and final observations
All these sorts of articles are the same and reminds me of these words:
“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…”
I hadn’t thought to do any anagrams but I see ‘furin cleavage site’ can be
– Asiatic flu revenge
Reminding us of the Wuhan psy op.
– eg I secret avian flu
The nature of the ‘flu.
– eviscerate flu gain
The purpose of furin proteins, helping to break down the cellular waste for removal.
– Lucifer against eve
The satanic work of the Devil as the phrase is used to confuse and befuddle the masses.
Now for the fun bit. You may have already thought of it, but here is my summary rendering of the ridiculous.
“The fur in cleavage is rather like a strip tease where the fur is shed to lower titties and expose the fools for what they are.”
This is what scientists do, being paid to examine the fur in cleavage!
And as the Oxford academic says:
“…scientists have demonstrated interest in studying novel cleavage sites…”
No wonder they never come up with an answer, they are having too much fun!
P.S. here is my article on the coronavirus if you haven’t seen explaining what it really is.
Coronavirus – is it really a monster, and if not, what is it?
On the Wuhan psy-op.
Gain of Function and Anthony Fauci
And while I’m at it, my take down of Neil Ferguson.
Neil Ferguson: how did his Covid 19 statistics fool the world?
Huge thank you for the hilarious and insightful takedown of the fiction that is viroLIEgy. This time, the furry cleavage site comes under Baldmichael's critical glare, is put through the wringer, and comes out looking like a right tit!! Bravo!!
Somewhat like BM but not quite, Benjamin Disraeli’s description of his rival William Gladstone:
"A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself."
They say cleavage, I say my arse.👍🦘🇦🇺