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Washington: Scientists have identified a new target for a drug that can treat the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, and also help fight a future coronavirus pandemic.
Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the United States noted that scientists should prepare for a possible next coronavirus pandemic.
“God forbid, we need it, but we’ll be ready,” said Karla Satchell, professor of microbiology-immunology at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
The team previously mapped the structure of a viral protein called nsp16, which is present in all coronaviruses.
The latest study, published in the journal Science Signaling, provides critical information that could aid in the development of drugs against future coronaviruses as well as SARS-CoV-2.
“There is a great need for new drug discovery approaches to combat the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic and infections from future coronaviruses,” Satchell said.
The idea behind the future drug is that it works early in the infection.
“If someone around you got the coronavirus, you would run to the pharmacy to get your meds and take them for three or four days. If you were sick you wouldn’t get so sick,” Satchell explained.
The researchers mapped three new protein structures in three-dimensional views and discovered a secret identifier in the machinery that helps the virus hide from the immune system.
They found a coronavirus-specific pocket in the protein, nsp16, which binds the genomic fragment of the virus held in place by a metal ion.
The fragment is used by the coronavirus as a template for all viral building blocks.
It is possible to make a drug suitable for this unique pocket that would block the function of this coronavirus protein, the researchers said.
It would not block the function of a similar protein from human cells devoid of pouches, they said, adding that such a drug would only target the invading protein.
Nsp16 is considered to be one of the key viral proteins that could be inhibited by drugs to stop the virus soon after a person has been exposed.
The goal, the researchers said, is to stop the virus early before people get too sick.
The team has worked to generate key information about this protein and is working with chemists who will use this information to design drugs against the protein.
The researchers noted that while some of the proteins in the coronavirus vary a lot, nsp16 is almost the same in most of them.
The unique pouch discovered by the team is present in all the different members of the coronavirus.
This means that drugs designed to fit into that pocket should work against all coronaviruses, including a virus that emerges in the future, the researchers say.
It should also work against the common cold which is caused by coronavirus, they said.
The researchers envision that any drug developed based on the team’s discovery of the pocket of coronavirus would be part of a treatment cocktail taken by patients early in the disease.
This could include drugs similar to Remdesivir, which prevent the virus from producing the template for the building blocks it needs to replicate, they added.
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