By Jim Shelton
February 24, 2021
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Yale scientists have developed a new class of antiviral agents that shows promise for creating COVID-19 therapeutics — exhibiting particular effectiveness when used in tandem with the drug remdesivir, another antiviral medication approved for use against the virus.
The new compounds are the first potent, drug-like, non-covalent, and non-peptidic inhibitors of the main protease, or enzyme, in SARS-CoV-2 that is crucial for processing essential viral proteins. A study demonstrating the compounds appears in the journal ACS Central Science.
The work is the latest collaboration of Yale researchers William Jorgensen and Karen Anderson, senior co-authors of the study, who use high-level computation and structural biology methods to design compounds that target viral proteins.