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University of Alberta lab reveals how a much-needed oral antiviral drug confuses replication machinery of SARS-CoV-2
A University of Alberta virology lab has uncovered how an oral antiviral drug works to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in findings published May 10 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The researchers demonstrated the underlying mechanism of action by which the antiviral drug molnupiravir changes the viral genome, a process known as excessive mutagenesis or “error catastrophe.”
“The polymerase, or replication engine of the virus, mistakes molnupiravir molecules for the natural building blocks required for viral genome replication and mixes them in,” explained Matthias Götte, professor and chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and member of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology. “It causes the polymerase to make sloppy copies nonsense genomes that are useless and not viable.
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IMAGE: Mutagenesis Model of Molnupiravir. SARS-CoV-2 polymerase (oval) mediated nucleotide incorporation into the RNA primer (grey circles)/template (white circles). Plus and minus sense indicate RNA sense. A, C, G, and U. view more
Credit: Supplied by Matthias Gotte
A University of Alberta virology lab has uncovered how an oral antiviral drug works to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in findings published May 10 in the
Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The researchers demonstrated the underlying mechanism of action by which the antiviral drug molnupiravir changes the viral genome, a process known as excessive mutagenesis or error catastrophe. The polymerase, or replication engine of the virus, mistakes molnupiravir molecules for the natural building blocks required for viral genome replication and mixes them in, explained Matthias Götte, professor and chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and