Researchers in England say they have made a groundbreaking discovery that could help defeat the new coronavirus. Other experts are cautious, warning that potential drug development could take a long time, but say it’s at least one step toward a better understanding of the virus.
As the now familiar images of SARS-CoV-2 show, the surface of the virus is covered in spikes. These so-called spike proteins can bind to the surfaces of human cells and cause infection.
After producing these cutting-edge proteins in a test tube, researchers at the University of Bristol observed it very closely using a recently developed imaging technique called cryoelectron microscopy, with cloud-based processes, building a 3D structure that then they could examine.
The structure contained a surprise: bags containing molecules of an essential fatty acid called linoleic acid (LA), which we absorb through food and which we need to stay healthy.
Although our bodies cannot do this, they need LA to keep cell membranes fluid so that our lungs can absorb oxygen and produce substances like prostaglandins that protect against inflammation in the cardiovascular system.
Symptoms of COVID-19 include generalized inflammation and shortness of breath. And studies have shown that people with the disease have lower-than-normal LA levels. That suggests the virus is looking for LA molecules, using them to spread and harm us in the process.
“So here we have LA, a molecule that is at the center of those functions that go haywire in COVID-19 patients, with dire consequences. And the virus that is causing all this havoc, according to our data, sticks and binds exactly to this molecule, basically disarming much of the body’s defenses. “
Now that the link between SARS-CoV-2 and Los Angeles has been discovered, the Bristol team hopes it will be possible to turn the virus against them. The idea is that newer small-molecule antiviral drugs could fill these “drug-like pockets” so that once the coronavirus has first entered a patient’s body, it becomes a non-infectious fiasco. that cannot be propagated.
In the short term, Berger said, LA could become part of a drug cocktail alongside other drugs like Gilead’s remdesivir, which inhibits another protein in the virus and has been shown.
LA is not toxic and most of the drugs being considered for the treatment of coronavirus have side effects, so it is possible that the addition of LA could allow.
In the long term, Berger suggested, it might be possible to find a molecule that is “even better than LA at shutting off the spike protein”; Peak Protein’s “junk pockets” seem tailor-made for Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean they can’t take something else.
This would mean the creation of a new drug to treat COVID-19.
Designer drugs
Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in a statement released through the Science Media Center that people should not expect the Bristol discovery to produce new drugs anytime soon, if ever. ever does. ever does. it does. it does.
But it could prove useful if other measures fail to successfully address the coronavirus, he said.
Regarding the Bristol team’s mention of some relevance to remdesivir, Evans noted that remdesivir has not yet shown “really strong reductions in mortality.”
“We hope and pray that the vaccines will work, but there is no guarantee that any of these vaccines will work. [With HIV] after 30 years of research we don’t have a vaccine, but what works is a cocktail of antiviral drugs ”.
