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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
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In mid-March of 2020, soon after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic, U.S. hospitals began to fill with gravely ill people. As cases surged, stores, schools, and businesses went remote. Healthcare professionals across the country worked feverishly to save lives but had no road map to help them handle the new threat.
Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 09May 2021
The news posted last week for the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2), which produces COVID-19 disease, has been surveyed and some important articles are summarized here. The articles are more or less organized with general virus news and anecdotes first, then stories from around the US, followed by an increased number of items from other countries around the globe. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
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Summary:
Major coronavirus metrics continue to head lower in the US, and now also globally. New cases in the US during the week ending May 8th were down 18.6% from new cases during the week ending May 1st, and are now down 83.3% from the January peak; this week also saw fewer new cases than any week since September. This week s US deaths attributed to Covid were 6.8% lower than the prior week s, and down 80.5% from the January hig