In their study, IPEK scientists Dr. Lucia Natarelli together with Prof. Christian Weber and colleagues proposed to consider in silico predictions and interactions to screen and design novel drugs to counter SARS-CoV-2-induced inflammatory complications. They identified selective motifs in the leader sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 genome as promising sites to generate antiviral selective drugs. Notably, major effective mutations currently reported for SARS-CoV-2 variants involve coding regions, whereas reliable mutations in the leader sequence and correlations with the severity of COVID-19 disease are missing. They identified target motifs in the leader sequence suitable for specific bindings with endogenous human miRNAs and lncRNAs that can be therefore considered a conceptual background for the development of RNA-based drugs against COVID-19.
Selected as Cover Story: Targeting SARS-CoV-2 with microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs
We are pleased that a paper from IPEK lead author Dr. Natarelli was selected as the cover of the March issue of "non-coding RNA".
