STRA6 (vitamin A receptor), as a Novel binding receptor of COVID-19

A global pandemic of pneumonia caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019. Although, the ACE2 receptor has been shown to be the main entry receptor of COVID-19, but here, in our docking analysis , we predicted and discovered a novel receptor called STRA6 that may play a critical role in the pathogenicity of COVID-19 and explain the common pre and post COVID-19 symptoms with uncertain etiology. STRA6 receptor expressed in many organs and immune cells, upregulated by retinoic acid jm6 (STRA6) was the first protein to be identified in a novel category of proteins, cytokine signaling transporters, due to its ability to function as both a cell surface receptor and a membrane protein that binds to retinol binding protein facilitating cellular uptake of retinol. In agreement to our findings, the main ligand of STRA6 (vitamin/retinol) was found to be significantly reduced during COVID-19 infection.