researchers from the University of British Columbia (UCB) in Canada announced Monday that they have identified 26 naturally occurring compounds which prevent the SARC-CoV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19infect human cells, which can create medicines once morest disease.
Scientists from UCB, in western Canada, published in the medical journal Antiviral Research that following investigating more than 350 natural compounds, they have identified the 26 that prevent the COVID-19 virus from reproducing in the human body.
The co-author of the study, the Mexican scientist Jimena Pérez-Vargas Obregón, told EFE that of these 26, three are especially effective in blocking the virus “and can also block the latest variants.”
The UCB associate researcher explained that the particularity of at least two of these compounds is that “they do not act once morest the virus but rather once morest a tool that the virus uses” to attack cellsso they are effective once morest the various variants.
The three most effective compounds are allotaketal C, from a marine sponge; bafilomycin D, from a marine bacterium; and holyrine A, also produced by a bacteria marina.
The researchers soaked cells from human lungs with these compounds and infected them with SARS-CoV-2 to discover those that blocked the reproduction mechanism of the virus.
Pérez-Vargas Obregón, who studied Chemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and later obtained a doctorate in Biochemical Sciences at the UNAM Institute of Biotechnology, warned that the discovery is only the beginning of a path that might lead to the production of medicines that combat the infection.
The UCB research team is now in the process of synthesizing the discovered compounds in the laboratory, in order to produce them without having to extract them from the organisms that produce them naturally.
Once synthesized, the researchers will carry out animal tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of the compounds in blocking the virus in large organisms.
These two phases will take approximately one year, said the Mexican researcher.
Once the preclinical trials are complete, the UCB researchers will have to partner with another group to carry out clinic tests with humans.
