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Novel Therapeutic Agents Targeting Replication of COVID-19

Grant number: unknown

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Key facts

  • Disease

    COVID-19

  • Funder

    University of Minnesota

  • Principal Investigator

    PhD. Da-Qing Yang

  • Research Location

    United States of America

  • Lead Research Institution

    The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota

  • Research Priority Alignment

    N/A

  • Research Category

    Therapeutics research, development and implementation

  • Research Subcategory

    Pre-clinical studies

  • Special Interest Tags

    N/A

  • Study Type

    Non-Clinical

  • Clinical Trial Details

    N/A

  • Broad Policy Alignment

    Pending

  • Age Group

    Not Applicable

  • Vulnerable Population

    Not applicable

  • Occupations of Interest

    Not applicable

Abstract

Different from many other types of viruses that synthesize their proteins in a cap-independent manner, coronavirus synthesizes its proteins in a cap-dependent manner using the protein synthetic machinery of its host cells. Previous studies have shown that targeting the protein eIF4E, which controls cap-dependent synthesis, can block coronavirus replication in human cells. Led by Da-Qing Yang, PhD, assistant professor at The Hormel Institute, researchers in this study will use their newly developed cap-dependent inhibitors against eIF4E to test the hypothesis that these inhibitors, recently patented by the University of Minnesota, can block coronavirus replication and infection in human cells, which may lead to the development of new and potent agents against COVID-19 infection.