National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University researchers have identified four antiviral drug candidates that can inhibit SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, the team leader said on Tuesday.
One of the drug candidates — JMY206 — is more than 10 times stronger than remdesivir, the first antiviral drug fully certified for the treatment of COVID-19, said Yang Jinn-moon (楊進木), dean of the university’s College of Biological Science and Technology.
The other drugs identified are boceprevir, an oral, direct-acting hepatitis C virus protease inhibitor; telaprevir, a hepatitis C drug; and nelfinavir, an antiretroviral drug used to treat HIV-positive patients, Yang said.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The team’s starting point was its understanding that SARS-CoV-2 is highly similar to the virus that causes SARS, Yang said.
It then gathered SARS-related data and screened US Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs and natural products for possible COVID-19 treatment, he said.
By using artificial intelligence and big data, the team created simulations of changes in cell mechanisms after SARS-CoV-2 entered human host cells, and compared them with 250 globally published images of the 3D architecture of the main protease of the virus.
That resulted in the identification of six possible structures of key proteases — the enzymes that break down proteins and could lead to disease — that are essential for promoting SARS-CoV-2 entry, Yang said.
The team then identified the drugs that could inhibit the proteases and eventually SARS-CoV-2.
The most potent of the drugs, JMY206, can inhibit SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells, the team said.
The therapeutic benefits of JMY206 have also been proven in animal experiments and it can be a potential oral drug against COVID-19, Yang said.
The team has applied for a patent, and is planning to publish a paper on its findings and develop medicines by combining other medicinal components, Yang added.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Police today said they are stepping up patrols throughout the Taipei MRT system, after a social media user threatened to detonate a bomb at an unspecified station this afternoon. Although they strongly believe the threat to be unsubstantiated, Taipei Metro police and the Railway Police Bureau still said that security and patrols would be heightened through the system. Many copycat messages have been posted since Friday’s stabbing attacks at Taipei Main Station and near Zhongshan MRT Station that left three dead and 11 injured, police said. Last night, a Threads user in a post said they would detonate a bomb on the Taipei
RSS