University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, mass vaccinations have begun to raise the tantalizing prospect of herd immunity that eventually curtails or halts the spread of SARS-CoV-2. But what if herd immunity is never fully achieved – or if the mutating virus gives rise to hyper-virulent variants that diminish the benefits of vaccination?
Those questions underscore the need for effective treatments for people who continue to fall ill with the coronavirus. While a few existing drugs show some benefit, there’s a pressing need to find new therapeutics.
Led by The University of New Mexico’s Tudor Oprea, MD, PhD, scientists have created a unique tool to help drug researchers quickly identify molecules capable of disarming the virus before it invades human cells or disabling it in the early stages of the infection.
New computational tool helps screen molecules for their potential COVID-fighting properties
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, mass vaccinations have begun to raise the tantalizing prospect of herd immunity that eventually curtails or halts the spread of SARS-CoV-2. But what if herd immunity is never fully achieved - or if the mutating virus gives rise to hyper-virulent variants that diminish the benefits of vaccination?
Those questions underscore the need for effective treatments for people who continue to fall ill with the coronavirus. While a few existing drugs show some benefit, there s a pressing need to find new therapeutics.
Led by The University of New Mexico s Tudor Oprea, MD, PhD, scientists have created a unique tool to help drug researchers quickly identify molecules capable of disarming the virus before it invades human cells or disabling it in the early stages of the infection.
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A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, mass vaccinations have begun to raise the tantalizing prospect of herd immunity that eventually curtails or halts the spread of SARS-CoV-2. But what if herd immunity is never fully achieved - or if the mutating virus gives rise to hyper-virulent variants that diminish the benefits of vaccination?
Those questions underscore the need for effective treatments for people who continue to fall ill with the coronavirus. While a few existing drugs show some benefit, there s a pressing need to find new therapeutics.
Led by The University of New Mexico s Tudor Oprea, MD, PhD, scientists have created a unique tool to help drug researchers quickly identify molecules capable of disarming the virus before it invades human cells or disabling it in the early stages of the infection.
Research published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence introduced a tool for scientists that will help in the rapid screening of small molecules having the potential of COVID-19 fighting properties.
EL PASO, Texas –Drug discovery researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso and the University of New Mexico have leveraged their expertise to develop a rapid online tool to accelerate the discovery of drug therapies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
REDIAL-2020 is an open-source online suite of computational models that will help scientists rapidly screen small molecules for their potential COVID-19-fighting properties. The platform is available as a web application through DrugCentral.org/Redial.
“REDIAL-2020 is a machine learning platform we developed to estimate the activities of drugs for anit-SARS-COV-2 activities,” said Suman Sirimulla, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UTEP’s School of Pharmacy. “The platform allows scientists from around the world to identify small molecules that can inhibit SARS-CoV-2, in order to develop new drugs or repurpose existing drugs to treat COVID-19.”