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Drug researchers pursue new lines of attack against COVID-19
Learning which proteins in the body are co-opted by coronavirus may uncover new drug targets and enable a better understanding of the body’s responses to infection.
As the clinical community awaits definitive trial evidence that any drug can improve survival outcomes in patients with COVID-19, researchers are expanding their drug target search from the viral replication machinery to proteins in the body that interact with SARS-CoV-2. A recent Nature paper from an international collaboration of researchers headed by Nevan Krogan of the University of California, San Francisco, highlights a list of 69 druggable human proteins. These proteins are involved in processes beyond immunomodulation, including endosomal uptake, mRNA translation, the Golgi and endoplasmic reticulum, and stress-granule formation.