Please read Dr. Kumar’s article in ACS Omega titled, “Scalable Inhibitors of the Nsp3-Nsp4 Coupling in SARS-CoV-2.“
SARS-CoV-2, a newly emerged Betacoronavirus, is responsible for the ongoing pandemic of severe respiratory disease, which has infected over 500 million people globally and resulted in millions of deaths. It is one of seven human infectious coronaviruses, including, 229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV. Its 30 kilobase genome consists of positive-sense, single-stranded RNA, which encodes 16 nonstructural proteins, four structural proteins (spike, envelope, nucleocapsid, and membrane), and nine accessory proteins. Significantly, the SARS-CoV-2 genome shares 79% homology to SARS-CoV.
Continuously emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants challenge the reliability of recently developed vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson) and pose an ongoing threat to international health. The Delta and later Omicron variants were classified as variants of concern by the CDC. However, other milder variants branched from them and, altogether, now constitute the majority of COVID-19 cases. Despite the threat posed by the new variants, vaccination efforts remain highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death and at inducing antibody neutralization activity, particularly following the administration of a booster vaccination. To read the full article.
Scalable Inhibitors of the Nsp3-Nsp4 Coupling in SARS-CoV-2. Azizogli AR, Pai V, Coppola F, Jafari R, Dodd-O JB, Harish R, Balasubramanian B, Kashyap J, Acevedo-Jake AM, Král P, Kumar VA. ACS Omega. 2023 Feb 6;8(6):5349-5360. PMID: 36798146 PMCID: PMC9923439 DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.2c06384