Skip to main content

New story in Health from Time: A First-of-its-Kind Library of Potential Coronavirus Drugs, Built at Columbia University, Funded by China’s Richest Person



If our experience with coronaviruses in the past few decades has taught us anything, it’s that outbreaks are inevitable, no matter what we do. You don’t have to look further than the fact that COVID-19 is the third coronavirus epidemic to affect human populations in 20 years, after severe acute respiratory syndromes (SARS) in 2003 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012. Coronaviruses make their homes in a variety of animal hosts, from bats to cats, dogs to camels, and it’s just a matter of time before another one makes the jump into people.

Another thing we know for sure is that we can’t rely on patchwork responses each time an outbreak occurs. Every time a new coronavirus emerges, researchers focus their attention on learning everything they can about the culprit, and biotech companies dip a careful toe into the investigational waters of developing a new treatment, but ultimately, when the cases subside, so does the interest and so does the research.

Dr. David Ho, CEO of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and professor of medicine at Columbia University, wants to put an end to that trend. Ho is a leader in the HIV field, having done groundbreaking research on how the virus works in the body, and pioneering the idea of combating infection early and with the strongest possible arsenal of combined anti-virals. Now, he’s turning to coronaviruses, hoping his HIV expertise will help him figure out how best to treat and contain novel coronaviruses. With a $2.1 million starting grant from Chinese technology mogul Jack Ma, Ho will oversee four research teams at Columbia whose goal is to find an effective treatment against COVID-19 and other coronaviruses.

“We put together a proposal in record time—probably no more than 72 hours,” says Ho. “We predict in the coming decade there will be more [outbreaks]. And we need to find permanent solutions. We should not repeat the mistake we made after SARS and after MERS, that once the epidemic wanes, the interest and the political will and the funding also wanes. If we had followed through with the work that had begun with SARS, we would be so much better off today.”

To ensure that the next response to a coronavirus outbreak is better than this one, Ho and his team are building a first-of-its-kind library of potential coronavirus drug candidates. Coronavirus, like HIV, is a retrovirus, meaning its primary genetic material is made up of RNA, which the virus then translates into DNA when it infects a host cell. So Ho is stacking his shelves with polymerase and protease inhibitors, and other drugs that have been developed to fight HIV and other viruses like viral hepatitis. Ho says there are about 4,700 of these drugs, if you include their analogues (drugs that are structurally similar but may be made using slightly different formulas and might have varying side effect profiles). Because viruses seem to share some basic processes to replicate, that means there’s a strong chance of finding something that might be effective against not just SARS-CoV-2 but other coronaviruses that might pop up in coming years.

Ho is also studying samples from people infected with COVID-19 to find antibodies that might be attacking the virus—applying a strategy his team has been using to find new approaches to treating HIV.

Other researchers are tracking strains of coronavirus currently living in animals like bats, so together with the library of potential drug candidates, Ho says it might be possible to better combat the next coronavirus infection. “We have a goal to have [some] lead candidates [to treat COVID-19] in one year’s time. So we really have to get going,” says Ho. “But if we had done something like this after SARS and MERS, we would be further along already.”

Popular posts from this blog

New story in Health from Time: Here’s How Quickly Coronavirus Is Spreading in Your State

The novel coronavirus pandemic is a global crisis, a national emergency and a local nightmare. But while a great deal of the focus in the U.S. has been on the federal government’s response, widely criticized as slow and halting , the picture on the ground remains very different in different parts of the country. A TIME analysis of the per capita spread of the epidemic in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. found considerable range in the rate of contagion, and, in some parts of the country, a significant disparity compared to the national figure. The U.S., unlike nations such as South Korea and now Italy , has yet to show signs of bringing the runaway spread of the virus under control. However, while no single state is yet showing strong signs of bending the curve , some are faring much worse than others. The following graphic plots the rise in the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents in each state, plotted by the day that each state reported its first case....

New video by gymvirtual on YouTube

Rutina para adelgazar | Ejercicios para perder peso en casa ♥ ♥ LÉEME / DESPLIÉGAME ♥ ♥ Hola a todos, hoy os traigo una rutina de cardio de 25 minutos para quemar grasa y adelgazar en casa. En la web https://ift.tt/39VJREp encontraréis los calendarios de entrenamiento tanto para principiantes como para avanzados. Si quieres conseguir tú transformación en solamente 12 semanas, entra ya en http://www.pgv12.com y elige el PLAN PGV12 que más se adapte a ti. Nuestro lema: YO PUEDO CON TODO Los hashtags: #GymVirtual #YPCT #YoPuedoConTodo #PGV12 ♡♡ ¡SUSCRÍBETE! ♡♡ http://www.youtube.com/user/gymvirtual ................................................................................................................................. ♡♡ PLAN DE ENTRENAMIENTO + NUTRICIÓN 12 SEMANAS♡♡ http://www.pgv12.com ................................................................................................................................. ♡♡¡ECHA UN VISTAZO A NUESTRA TIENDA ONLINE! ♡♡ https://ift.tt/2Un...

New story in Health from Time: After Cruise Ships and Nursing Homes, Will Universities Be the Next COVID-19 Tinderboxes?

The fall semester has yet to begin, but student athletes training for the season can already be found on college campuses across the U.S. And so can COVID-19. Since the start of July there have been at least two outbreaks among student athletes, coaches, and staff—with 37 infected at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill and 22 at Boise State . Clusters of infection have been traced to college town bars popular with students. A common misconception is that young people with COVID-19 don’t die and therefore college re-openings pose little risk. Sadly, this isn’t the case. COVID-19 deaths in the young are rare, but they happen. Universities across the U.S. are mourning the loss of students in the lead-up to the school year, including Joshua Bush , a 30-year old nursing student at the University of South Carolina, Trevor Syphus Lee , a 27-year old senior at Utah Valley University, and Juan Garcia , a 21-year old Penn State undergraduate. One might imagine th...