Researchers have discovered a new drug that can deceive SARS-CoV-2 into not entering the body’s cells and killing itself.
New research has come out about how scientists have found a drug that can essentially “trick” COVID-19 into attacking decoy cells, instead of human cells.
The new research comes from Associate Professor Jasmin Mecinovic and co-workers from the Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, and it’s regarding a specific compound that may provide an appropriate basis for the development of new drugs that can treat COVID-19 infections.
The idea behind the proposed compound is to prevent the virus from entering the body’s cells, and if that stage of the infection process can be stopped, the virus cannot survive.
So, how does it work? The researchers behind the study found that peptides that are designed to look like the ACE2 receptor (the enzyme that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein specifically interacts with) can act as a decoy to the virus and prevent the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein from binding.
Ph.D. student Marijn Maas, the first author of the article, said that these essentially molecular decoys could be an effective way of preventing infection. However, more studies must be done.