Carbohydrate-Binding Agents: Potential of Repurposing for COVID-19 Therapy.

Carbohydrate-Binding Agents: Potential of Repurposing for COVID-19 Therapy. Curr Protein Pept Sci. 2020 Sep 18;: Authors: Gupta RK, Apte GR, Lokhande KB, Mishra S, Pal JK Abstract With the emergence of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the whole world is suffering from atypical pneumonia which resulted in more than 559,047 deaths worldwide. In this time of crisis and urgency, the only hope comes from new candidate vaccines and potential antivirals. However, formulating new vaccines and synthesizing new antivirals is a laborious task. Therefore, considering the high infection rate and mortality due to COVID-19, utilization of previous information, and repurposing of existing drugs against valid viral targets has emerged as a novel drug discovery approach in this challenging time. The transmembrane spike (S) glycoprotein of coronaviruses (CoVs) which facilitates virus entry into the host cells, exists as homotrimeric form and is covered with N-linked glycans. S glycoprotein is known as the main target of antibodies having neutralizing potency and is also considered as an attractive target for therapeutic or vaccine development. Similarly, targeting of N-linked glycans of S glycoprotein envelop of CoV via carbohydrate-binding agents (CBAs) could serve as an attractive therapeutic approach for developing novel antivirals. CBAs from natural sources like lectins from plants, marine algae and prokaryote...
Source: Current Protein and Peptide Science - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Curr Protein Pept Sci Source Type: research