Learning from the Past: Possible Urgent Prevention and Treatment Options for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections Caused by 2019‐nCoV

With the current trajectory of the 2019-nCoV outbreak unknown, public health and medicinal measures will both be needed to contain spreading of the virus and to optimize patient outcomes. Although little is known about the virus, an examination of the genome sequence shows strong homology with its better-studied cousin, SARS-CoV. The spike protein used for host cell infection shows key nonsynonymous mutations that might hamper the efficacy of previously developed therapeutics but remains a viable target for the development of biologics and macrocyclic peptides. Other key drug targets, including RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and coronavirus main proteinase (3CLpro), share a strikingly high (>95 %) homology to…

• WF
  Welch Foundation

  Award: A-1715
• NO
  NIH Office of the Director

  Awards: R01GM127575, R01GM121584