Right now, as this video is being recorded, the COVID-19 pandemic is raging, and we desperately need to find a drug that would at least make SARS-CoV-2 less virulent, more like the regular flu.
Right now as this video is being recorded the kovach 19 pandemic is raging we desperately need to find a drug that would at least make tsarskoe v2 less virulent more like the regular flu sars co v2 virus did not emerge from nowhere it evolved from a large family of corona viruses it’s eighteen year old brother sars colleague from southern china it’s much deadlier
Cousin murska v from saudi arabia and countless other benign corona viruses that cause the common cold or nothing at all thats our scooby to belongs to a family of well studied viruses is fortunate it gives us hints about the biological targets we should go after in our urgent quest for effective treatment tsarskoe v2 genome unlike ours is made of rna with its own
Unique replication machinery introducing a ribonucleotide analog that specifically interferes with this replication is thus an obvious strategy that is what the drug ramba severe is all about we also have a good idea about how the virus infects cells it binds to a stool a membrane-bound enzyme that regulates inflammation it is then engulfed in a membrane-bound
Physical a process called endocytosis and at some point it leaves the endosome to replicate cora keen lowers the ph of the endosome and interferes with this endosomal escape accelerated clinical trials are underway and we all hope that both drugs will fulfill their promises but to drugs is definitely not enough we know that effective antiviral therapy such as
An aids usually requires a combination more and more experts agree that this may also be true for tsarskoe v2 we need to find more drugs for sure and there is an empty spot a biological target that is begging to be hit the tsarskoe v2 main protease which x-ray structure was determined just days ago it plays a vital role in cleaving the newly synthesized tsarskoe
V2 poly protein to generate functional building blocks for new viruses predicting the 3d structure of a protein enables the most sophisticated way to look for a lead candidate in silico such a virtual screening measures molecular docking the affinities between a binding site and a candidate compound and if a positive heat compound is otherwise known to exert
Inhibitory effects on other viruses if it has been shown in vitro to interfere with viral growth what as purely virtual becomes real this is precisely the work that was carried out on tsarskoe v2 on its empro proteins through virtual screening and in wholesale infection assays using the tsarskoe v2 deadly cousin mers both studies looked at large numbers of drug
Candidates 3639 approved drugs for m-pro molecular docking and 5,000 406 compounds in in vitro infection assays and among the winners that may define the future is digoxin digoxin is an old drug isolated in 1930 we know a lot about its benefits it’s dangerous risks and what therapeutic purpose it may serve today this purpose is treatment of irregular heartbeat but
Jackson also has interesting biological activities that a priori have little to do with cardiology in particular antiviral effects and anti-inflammatory properties they may have been considered anecdotal but in the urgent fight against co 819 they become very important does digoxin deserve a chance yes as much as all the other drug candidates and if one considers
That digoxin is inexpensive and widely available it may well end up becoming that third drug to help make a decisive difference for hundreds of thousands of patients digoxin a drug studied in the past may well help us define a better future and the future is now i’m vanilla rose molecular biologist and science storyteller you
Transcribed from video
DIGOXIN: FILLING A GAP IN THE STRATEGY TO DEVELOP ANTI COVID-19 DRUGS? By Vanya Loroch