Putting a ‘Cork’ in Corona (Novel Approach)

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Putting a Cork in Corona (Novel Approach)Israel21C ^
| AUGUST 19, 2021
| Brian Blum
Posted on 08/29/2021 12:43:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A novel approach from the Weizmann Institute of Science plugs the opening that the SARS CoV-2 virus uses to attach to cells in the body.
Put a cork in it is generally a rude way to tell someone to stop talking. But when it comes to Covid-19, it may be just the ticket to ending the pandemic.
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot are working on a novel approach to the novel coronavirus: a chemical cork that plugs up the opening the SARS CoV-2 virus uses to attach to cells in the body.
The approach is very different than the way most of the current batch of Covid-19 vaccines work. The latter target the spike protein on the viruss outer envelope. Thats worked well in attenuating the contagiousness and serious disease from the original version of the virus, but that protein is prone to mutations that erode the efficacy of the vaccines as the recent Delta surge has proven.
Since the virus is constantly evolving, we have, instead, focused on the non-evolving human receptor called ACE2, explains Prof. Gideon Schreiber of the Weizmanns Biomolecular Sciences Department, who supervised the new study.
As a result, Schreibers super cork approach should not be susceptible to current or emerging virus variants.
ACE2 is an enzyme that is important for regulating blood pressure. That means the researchers need to be careful: They must block the viruss entry via the ACE2 receptor, but they cant impede its function too much without causing other damage.
Schreibers team aims to develop a small protein molecule that can bind to ACE2 better than SARS-CoV-2 (thus blocking the viruss ability to get through) but without affecting ACE2s activity.
The super cork has been tested at the US National Institutes of Health on hamsters who were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Preliminary results indicate that the treatment significantly reduces disease symptoms. More preclinical studies are planned.
Dr. Jií Zahradník, a postdoctoral fellow in Schreibers group, is leading the research. The process began by identifying SARS-CoV-2s binding domain, the relatively short sequence of building blocks within the larger spike protein that binds to ACE2.
Using the viruss own receptor binding domain as a weapon against SARS-CoV-2, Zahradník performed several rounds of evolution-in-a-test-tube on a genetically engineered strain of bakers yeast. Since yeast is easily manipulated, Zahradník was able to scan millions of different mutations in a process that imitates natural evolution at a much faster pace.
The goal is to find a molecule that will be stickier than the original viral version.
Zahradník was able to isolate a small protein fragment with a binding capability 1,000 times stronger than that of the original binding domain from which it evolved and that fit ACE2 like a glove. Two PhD students in Schreibers lab, Maya Shemesh and Shir Marciano, identified the same protein.
Only very low concentrations of the newly engineered molecule were needed to achieve the desired blocking effect.
Schreiber and his team collaborated with Prof. Yinon Rudich of Weizmanns Earth and Planetary Sciences Department. Together with Ira Marton and Chunlin Li, they have created an aerosol spray that would administer the developed molecule by inhalation.
As the Delta variant continues to create chaos around the world, subverting previously successful vaccination drives, the Weizmanns super cork may be just what the doctor ordered.
The results of their research appear here
TOPICS:Business/Economy; Health/Medicine; ScienceKEYWORDS:covid19; cure; israel
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Nope. ONLY VACCINES Vaccine is the truth the light and the way. All hail the vaccine. We must all get the vaccine to show our fealty to Saint Fauci or Bureaucracy. No preventatives treatments or prophylaxis shall be tried or tested,
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posted on 08/29/2021 12:47:41 PM PDT
by Organic Panic
(Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden’s eyes.)
3
posted on 08/29/2021 12:50:03 PM PDT
by WildHighlander57
((WildHighlander57 returning after lurking since 2000) )
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