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Coronavirus breakthrough: US scientists find possible cure for COVID-19

Coronavirus breakthrough: US scientists find possible cure for COVID-19
More than 160 potential COVID-19 vaccines are under development across the globe.

Scientists have found a therapeutic target that plays a major role in coronavirus replication inside a human body.

Written by Longjam Dineshwori |Updated : August 6, 2020 9:48 AM IST

The novel coronavirus has plunged the world into an unprecedented health crisis, killing nearly 7 lakh people since its outbreak in China. So far the deadly virus has infected about 18,142,718 people worldwide, as per the latest data from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Scientists around the world are leaving no stone unturned to find a solution to contain the pandemic. More than 160 research groups are working on finding and developing potential vaccines for the novel coronavirus, out of which around 26 candidates are being tested on humans across the globe. Russia is making big strides in the race with plans to release the world's first COVID-19 vaccine this month and start mass vaccination campaign from October.

Meanwhile, US scientists have claimed to have found a possible cure for COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. In a study published in the Science Translational Medicine journal, the scientists said that they have found a therapeutic target that plays a major role in the replication of the virus inside a human body - PTI reported.

How to block replication of coronavirus inside human body

They claimed that coronavirus 3C-like proteases, known as 3CLpro, are strong therapeutic targets because they play vital roles in coronavirus replication.

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According to them, the use of optimized coronavirus 3CLpro inhibitors blocked the replication of the human coronaviruses MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 in cultured cells and in a mouse model for MERS.

"This paper describes protease inhibitors targeting coronavirus 3CLpro, which is a well-known therapeutic target," the news agency quoted one of the researchers Kyeong-Ok Chang, a professor at Kansas State University in the US, as saying.

Based on their findings, the researchers suggested that this series of compounds should be investigated further as a potential therapeutic for human coronavirus infection.

Boiling water could kill coronavirus completely: Russian scientists

Russia has been drawing the attention of the world amidst the pandemic. The country's media recently reported that Russian health authorities have plans to start a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in October, beginning with frontline workers, including doctors and teachers. A potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology has completed clinical trials and it is expected to be approved by regulators this month itself. Russia is likely to release the vaccine before the end of Phase 3 trials, which began from Aug. 3 in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Russia aims to produce 30 million doses of the potential Covid-19 vaccine domestically in 2020, and 170 million abroad.

The country made headlines again yesterday when a research team from Russia's VECTOR State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk, Siberia claimed that they have found the weak spot of SARS-CoV-2.

They found that room temperature water could kill 90 per cent particles of the coronavirus in a span of 24 hours and 99.9 per cent died in 72 hours. But the novel coronavirus succumbed to the boiling water immediately and completely, they said.

The team also found that coronavirus did not multiply in chlorinated water, though it was able to survive there for some time, a Russian news agency report.