Antiviral Drug Discovery Services for Coronavirus
Coronaviruses (CoVs) pose a major threat to public health security because no drugs or vaccines are currently approved for the treatment of human CoVs. With the continuous outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus, formerly 2019-nCoV), how to rapidly develop therapeutics to prevent and control Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a hot issue of global concern. And the outbreak will intensify efforts by the biomedical industry to research and develop drugs for infectious diseases. As a leading provider of contract research services for structural biology projects, Creative Biostructure is committed to structural and computational drug discovery against targets to facilitate the development of antiviral drugs for human CoVs.
Brief Introduction to Drug Development for SARS-CoV-2
There are currently a variety of solutions that are expected to control COVID-19, including monoclonal antibodies, oligonucleotide-based drugs, peptides, interferon therapies, as well as small molecule drugs. Similar to Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), the SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes structural proteins (such as spike glycoprotein), accessory proteins, and non-structural proteins (such as helicase, papain-like protease, 3-chymotrypsin-like protease, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase). The spike (S) protein is an indispensable part that mediates virus invasion into cells, and the other four non-structural proteins play a crucial role in virus proliferation. Therefore, these five proteins are considered as significant targets for the development of antiviral drugs for human CoVs.
Table 1 Virally targeted agent development strategies for SARS-CoV-2
| Antiviral Agents |
Mechanisms of Action (MOAs) |
| Nucleoside analogue inhibitors |
RNA synthesis during viral replication of RNA viruses (including SARS-CoV-2) can be inhibited by targeting RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). |
| Viral protease inhibitors |
The activity of viral proteases (such as 3-chymotrypsin-like protease and papain-like protease) can be inhibited, thus blocking the proteolysis of protein precursors translated by viral RNA and producing immature, non-infectious viral particles. |
| Spike glycoprotein-targeted agents |
Monoclonal antibodies and antiviral peptides targeting the S protein can block the binding of S protein to the receptor ACE2, thereby preventing the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into human cells. |
Table 2 Host-targeted agent development strategies for SARS-CoV-2
| Antiviral Agents |
Mechanisms of Action (MOAs) |
| Inhibitors of host cell protease |
Antiviral action is achieved by inhibiting virus-cell membrane fusion and subsequent viral entry. |
| Interferons and other immunomodulatory drugs |
Interferon (α and β) and other immunomodulatory drugs can stimulate the innate antiviral response in humans, which are antiviral drugs with broad-spectrum efficiency. |
Structure-based and Computer-aided Drug Development
Structure-based drug design (SBDD) is based on the structure of the target or the structure information of the known compound to rationally design the drug. The designed drug based on structure has strong activity, specific effect and few side-effects. Compared with the traditional method of extensive drug screening, SBDD reduces the number of compounds to be screened and speeds up the drug development cycle. Computer-aided drug design (CADD) is a technique to realize structure-based drug discovery.
Antiviral Drug Discovery Services at Creative Biostructure
Creative Biostructure can offer structure-based antiviral drug discovery services to facilitate screen and identify effective antiviral drugs. Applications of our services include, but are not limited to, selective inhibitor discovery, antiviral peptide discovery, antibody development, and broad-spectrum antiviral drug discovery. Of course, the premise of achieving all of these is to obtain structural information, and if you need to do structural analysis of the target, we are confident to provide you with relevant services.
Why Do You Choose Us?
Creative Biostructure is a professional service vendor for the structural biology and pharmaceutical industries. We can assist you with complete structure-based drug development pipeline projects such as early stage conceptual design, virtual screen virtual screening, high-throughput screening, and computational molecular modeling studies. We guarantee:
- Tailored services and best-in-class customer experience
- Professional project management and fast response
- Confidentiality of customer data
- Flexibility, efficiency and cost-effectiveness
- Our customer service representatives are available 24 hours a day from Monday to Sunday
Contact us to discuss your project!
Reference
- Li G, De Clercq E. Therapeutic options for the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 2020, 19: 149-150.
