With the help of supercomputers, US researchers have probably found active ingredients that keep the virus at bay. German colleagues, on the other hand, want to paralyze an enzyme that enables the dangerous microorganism to penetrate body cells.
Photo: panthermedia.net/Korolkov
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American researchers have identified 77 substances that inhibit the coronavirus, which bears the scientific name SARS-CoV-2, with the help of supercomputers, but only in simulations. It remains to be seen whether they will deliver what they promise in practice. Colleagues in Göttingen and Berlin, on the other hand, are already targeting a specific drug that has already been approved in Japan for the treatment of inflammation of the pancreas. Direct application is also not possible here. Clinical studies are necessary beforehand. But the chances of fighting the virus are not bad.
The victim’s body helps the virus
In order to be able to penetrate body cells, SARS-CoV-2 needs the help it attacks. Without TMPRSS2, an enzyme that is produced in the human body, the attack of the virus fails. Researchers at the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen, together with colleagues from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and 5 other institutions, have gained this mechanism. The scientists believe that the virus can be neutralized if the enzyme Camostat Mesilate prevents or at least throttles the formation of the enzyme.
The treatment has already worked in the laboratory
The scientists examined the effects of the drug in the laboratory.
“We tested SARS-CoV-2 from a patient and found that Camostat Mesilate blocks the virus from entering lung cells,” said Markus Hoffmann, the study’s lead author. Stefan Pöhlmann, head of the infection biology department at the German Primate Center, is certain: “We have thus found a starting point for combating the virus.” Hoffmann agrees: “Our results suggest that Camostat mesilates also protect against the disease COVID-19 could, ”says Hoffmann. COVID-19 is the scientific name of the disease that causes the coronavirus.
Related to the trigger of the SARS pandemic
Various coronaviruses circulate all over the world, which constantly infect humans and usually only cause mild respiratory diseases. SARS-CoV-2, however, is of a different caliber, even if the disease is usually mild. There are 90,000 infected and more than 3,000 dead worldwide. SARS-CoV-2 is related to the SARS corona virus that triggered the SARS pandemic in 2002/2003. Neither vaccines nor drugs are currently available to combat both viruses.
325 trillion floating point operations per second
How long it will be before the promising drug to fight COVID-19 is approved – provided the clinical tests are positive – is still open. Likewise, the use of one or the other active ingredient, which US researchers consider to be helpful. With supercomputers, which are among the most powerful in the world, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the USA are tackling the coronavirus. The computers create 325 billion floating-point operations per second. A simulation program reveals how the culprit behaves under the influence of thousands of active ingredients.
Summit and Sierra are the mainframes, which are equipped with Power9 processors from IBM and Nvidia’s accelerator cards Tesla V100. The ORNL Summit contains 9216 IBM processors, each with 22 cores and 27,000 Tesla V100 accelerators. Sierra is actually used by the U.S. military for research into nuclear weapons. It houses 8640 Power9 CPUs and 17,280 Tesla V100.
8,000 simulations in just two days
With Summit, Micholas Smith and Jeremy C. Smith tested the behavior of 8,000 drugs on SARS-CoV-2 in just two days. The sequencing of the virus by Chinese researchers served as the basis. This method determines the sequence of nucleotides in a DNA molecule. 77 of these agents weaken the virus or even prevent it from docking, so that it could not get into the body’s cells.
Job search for engineers
What has been achieved in the simulation cannot simply be transferred to reality. For this reason, the researchers are starting further simulation runs with an improved model of SARS-CoV-2. The Sierra mainframe has a different task. It simulates the behavior of antibodies when they come into contact with SARS-CoV-2. Ultimately, however, the active ingredients that seem to keep the virus in check still have to be checked in practice.
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