The discovery, published in the journal Nature Communications, paves the way for human clinical trials of the drug, a protease inhibitor called GC376.
“It is very likely that this drug is for human paintings, so we are encouraged to make it an effective remedy for PATIENTS with COVID-19,” said Joanne Lemieux, a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada.
However, the researchers said clinical trials will want to take their course before anyone can be sure that the drug is effective in treating COVID-19 in humans.
In cats, at least, GC376 works by interfering with a virus’s ability to replicate, thus ending an infection, they said.
Derivatives of this drug were first studied after the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, and evolved through veterinary researchers who demonstrated that it cures a deadly feline disease.
Lemieux and his colleagues first created two variants of the feline drug opposite the protein SRAS-CoV-2 in tubes and with the virus living in human moving lines.
They then crystallized drug variants along with viral proteins.
Researchers decided on the targeting of the cat drug when it was connected to an active site in a SARS-CoV-2 protein, revealing how viral replication inhibited.
“This will allow us to expand even more effective drugs,” Lemieux said, adding that the team will continue to verify modifications of the inhibitor to make it more compatible with the virus.
Aina Cohen of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at the U. S. Department of EnergyU. S. , she said she was excited about the effectiveness of the drug.
“Until an effective vaccine can be developed and implemented, such as those that are loaded into our arsenal of COVID-19 treatments,” Cohen said.
“We are very happy to be informed of those effects and look forward to hearing the effects of clinical trials,” he said.
This story was published from a firm thread without converting the text. Only the name has been changed.
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