SARS CRISIS: Scientists in Germany have uncovered a potential drug target that could help in the battle against the SARS virus. They believe an anti-viral drug already approved for use against the common cold could be modified to make it effective against SARS.
The team, lead by Prof Rolf Hilgenfeld from the University of Lübeck, produced a synthetic model of a SARS "protease", an enzyme essential for viral replication. Details of the work were released yesterday by the journal Science.
SARS is a member of the coronavirus family. The model protease was constructed after studying a protease taken from a human coronavirus that can cause the common cold, and a pig coronavirus. All were very alike and also similar to an essential protease from the rhinovirus, another germ that can cause a cold.
An existing drug named AG7088 is being tested for use as a cold remedy because of its ability to target the rhinovirus protease. "Molecular modelling suggests that available rhinovirus inhibitors may be modified to make them useful for SARS therapy," the authors report.
The model of the SARS protease provides "a solid basis for the design of anti-cornonaviral drugs" say the authors and a way to study the affects of any drug on the virus's ability to reproduce once it invades a healthy cell. They suggest that "derivatives of AG7088 might be good starting points" for finding a treatment against SARS. The drug was already under test so its safety was not an issue, the authors argue.
