X-ray screening identifies compounds blocking a major coronavirus enzyme
Three natural compounds present in foods like green tea, olive oil and red wine are promising candidates for the development of drugs against the coronavirus. In a comprehensive screening of a large library of natural substances at DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III, the compounds bound to a central enzyme vital for the replication of the coronavirus.
All three compounds are already used as active substances in existing drugs, as the team headed by Christian Betzel from the University of Hamburg and Alke Meents from DESY, Germany reports in the journal Communications Biology. However, if and when a corona drug can be developed on the basis of these compounds remains to be investigated.
“We tested 500 substances from the Karachi Library of Natural Compounds if they bind to the papain-like protease of the novel coronavirus, which is one of the main targets for an antiviral drug,” explains the study’s main author Vasundara Srinivasan from the University of Hamburg. “A compound that binds to the enzyme at the right place can stop it from working.”
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