Scientists are already preparing for a possible future coronavirus pandemic that could strike in 2028, suggesting a seven-year cycle foreshadowed from 2004 onwards. At the same time, researchers discovered a new target for the development of more effective drugs for future and current coronaviruses, notes news.ro.
The Covid-19 pandemic is still here, but scientists are already preparing for the next one if the worrying trend continues.
Researchers at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine believe there is a seven-year pattern beginning in 2004 with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China and continuing with the Middle East respiratory syndrome epidemic. (MERS) and then with that of Covid-19, which could signal that another coronavirus epidemic could arrive in 2028.
Fortunately, despite these disturbing assessments, the authors of the study discovered a new target in the fight against Covid-19 and future coronaviruses.
“We hope we don’t need this, but we will be prepared,” said Karla Satchell, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Feinberg, who leads an international team of scientists analyzing the virus’s important structures.
The Northwestern team previously mapped the structure of a virus protein called nsp16, which is present in all coronaviruses.
This new study provides essential information that could help develop drugs against future coronaviruses, as well as SARS-CoV-2.
The study reveals a key area in a certain protein that helps these viruses work and infect humans.
Researchers say developing drugs that target this area may prevent future strains of the coronavirus from becoming deadly.
“The idea is for this future drug to act at the beginning of the infection. If someone close to you were to become infected with a coronavirus, you could run to the pharmacy to get a medicine that needs to be administered for three or four days, and if you do get infected, the disease will not be serious,” explains Prof. Satchell.
The international team mapped three new proteins using 3D technology to find out which structures are important for these pathogens.
They discovered a “secret pocket” – which possesses properties suitable for binding a ligand – in the inner workings of the virus, which allows it to hide from the human immune system.
The coronavirus-specific pocket is in the nsp16 protein, which is present in all strains of the coronavirus, not just SARS-CoV-2.
This pocket binds a fragment of the virus genome, which is held in place by a metal ion. The coronavirus uses this fragment as a template for all its viral components.
The authors of the study believe that there is a good chance of creating drugs that target this pocket and block the function of the nsp16 protein, without affecting the function of normal proteins in the human body, which do not have this compartment.
Nsp16 is considered one of the key viral proteins that could be inhibited by drugs to stop the virus shortly after a person is exposed. The goal is to stop the virus early, before people get too sick.
As little research has been done on nsp16, Prof. Satchell’s team has been working to generate key information about this protein and is collaborating with chemists who will use this information to design drugs against the protein.
While some of the coronavirus proteins vary greatly, nsp16 is almost the same in most of them.
Moreover, the unique pocket discovered by Satchell’s group is present in all the different members of the coronavirus.
This means that drugs designed to fit this pocket should work against all coronaviruses, including a future virus. And it should also work against the common cold which is caused by a coronavirus.
The researchers predict that any drug developed following the discovery by his team of the pocket of the coronavirus would be part of a cocktail of treatments taken by patients at the beginning of the evolution of the disease, cites stiripesurse.ro.
2023-07-31 22:45:06
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