Thread by @TheHawksOps

#CoronavirusOutbreak:
German researchers have succeeded in decoding an enzyme that is crucial for the multiplication of the #coronavirus - and in finding an inhibitor. [THREAD]

Without the main viral protease Mpro, SARS-CoV-2 cannot have its genetic material copied from the host cell. Knowing this enzyme structure, therefore, opens up new possibilities to fight the #coronavirus. 1/x

A breakthrough made by researchers Linlin Zhang & Rolf Hilgenfeld from the University of Lübeck.

#COVID19 needs this enzyme to have its viral RNA copied from the host cell. To do this, it first produces large protein complexes, so-called polyproteins. 2/x

The main protease cuts these into twelve smaller proteins, which then build up the replication complex - and thus start the RNA multiplication.

"If we succeed in blocking the main protease, we can prevent virus replication," explains Hilgenfeld
#COVID19
3/x

To decode this enzyme, they used the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 published by Chinese researchers in January to isolate the genetic building instructions for the main protease, to synthesize it & then to introduce the gene into a lab culture of Escherichia coli bacteria. 4/x

And there is already a first success: An inhibitor developed a few years ago by Hilgenfeld and his team against the pathogen MERS-CoV and other closely related coronaviruses have also proven effective against SARS-CoV-2. 5/x

When the researchers administered this so-called alpha-ketoamide inhibitor to mice by injection or inhalation spray, the inhibitor accumulated, as hoped, primarily in the lungs and kidneys - the organs most affected by #COVID19. 6/x

Tests with cultures of human lung cells confirmed the effectiveness: If the lung cells were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, the inhibitor blocked the virus multiplication and thus prevented the infection from progressing, as the researchers report. 7/End