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New anti-Covid weapons thanks to an Italian biotech platform

2021-08-24T15:14:57.326Z


They are fragments of proteins that can be used as drugs to block the door to the virus and as low-cost vaccines against variants to be administered sublingually (ANSA)


Unpublished weapons against Covid-19 are taking shape thanks to a new all-Italian biotech forge: it is an innovative technological platform for the production of small fragments of proteins (peptides) that act in a targeted manner like bullets. Some have already scored in preliminary tests on cells and animal models, so much so that they could soon turn into drugs to block the door to the SarsCoV2 virus, and into low-cost sublingual vaccines against the variants. The result is published in Viruses magazine by University of Rome Tor Vergata, University of Catanzaro, Hospitaller Physiotherapy Institutes (IFO) and National Research Council (CNR) of Rome, in collaboration with the University of Toronto (Canada) and the Renown Health network. (United States).

The study, supported by the Rome Foundation and the Ministry of University and Research, began in the spring of 2020, when the outbreak of the pandemic highlighted the urgent need to accelerate the search for new drugs and vaccines. Within a few months, virologists, immunologists, pharmacologists, geneticists and bioinformaticians have combined their expertise and developed a mix of technologies for the development of peptides. "They are tiny chains of amino acids that act as specific drugs, with less toxicity and limited side effects: there are currently more than 400 peptide-based drugs in development in the world and over 60 already approved for clinical use," he explains. ANSA the geneticist Giuseppe Novelli of the University of Rome Tor-Vergata. "Peptides are also very promising against Covid-19:could constitute a new class of drugs against SarsCoV2 and could help the development of new vaccines and monoclonal antibodies ”.

Moving in this direction, researchers have already succeeded in identifying a series of peptides capable of inhibiting the entry of the SarsCoV2 virus into human cells through the DPP4 receptor (the other gateway besides the ACE-2 receptor). "In vitro tests on cells have confirmed that they could be used as anti-Covid drugs, the first of a peptide nature", underlines Novelli. "We have also identified some regions of the viral Spike protein that do not mutate easily and that may be the basis of a new generation of vaccines: inoculated into mice, in the form of small peptides, they stimulated the production of antibodies with high titers and excellent neutralizing capacity. against variants of the virus ".

“The use of innovative technologies and bioinformatics adopted in the platform allows to accelerate the identification of new target molecules active against viral receptors”, comments Stefano Alcaro of the Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro. "" The technology used is dynamic and flexible - adds Gennaro Citro, former IFO executive and co-author of the study - and can be used in the future to rapidly develop innovative drugs based on peptides also against other pandemic agents ".

Source: ansa

All tech articles on 2021-08-24

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