Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UCB) in Canada announced on Monday that have identified 26 naturally occurring compounds that prevent the SARC-CoV-2 virus, that causes covid-19, infects human cells, which can create medicines against the disease.
Scientists from UCB, in western Canada, published in the medical journal Antiviral Research After 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 Obregontold EFE that of these 26, three are especially effective in blocking the virus “and They can also block the latest variants.”
The UCB research associate explained that the particularity of at least two of these compounds is that “they do not act against the virus but against a tool that the virus uses” to attack cells, so they are effective against 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 marine bacterium.
The researchers soaked cells from human lungs with these compounds and infected them with SARS-CoV-2 to find out which ones blocked the virus’s reproduction mechanism.
Pérez-Vargas Obregón, who studied Chemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexicoor (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 can lead to the production of medicines that fight 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 conduct clinical trials on humans.
EFE