In a new development pertaining to coronavirus of COVID-19, a team of biochemists and virologists at Frankfurt University and Goethe University observed how human cells change upon infection with this virus. To assert this, the team tested a series of compounds in laboratory environments and found that some compounds slowed down or stopped virus production.
As a result, this has enabled the search for an active substance to narrow down to a small number of drugs that are already approved. Based on these findings, a US company and a Canadian company have reported to prepare for clinical trials.
Earlier, since February, the Medical Virology of the Frankfurt University Hospital is in possession of an infection cell culture system for coronavirus of COVID-19. And, the Frankfurt scientists succeeded to cultivate the virus in colon cells from swabs taken from two infected individuals who returned from Wuhan.
Researchers employ Mass Spectrometry to Detect Change in Amount and Rate of Protein
Meanwhile, researchers at the Institute for Biochemistry II at Goethe University Frankfurt developed a technique to show how coronavirus for COVID-19 changes the human cells. For this, the team used a particular form of mass spectrometry called mePROD , developed by the team themselves only a few months ago. Using this method, it enables to determine the amount and rate of synthesis of thousands of proteins within a cell.
Following this, researchers painted a picture of the progression of coronavirus of COVID-19. While many viruses shut down protein production in the host human cells to the benefit of viral proteins, coronavirus of COVID-19 only slightly influences protein production of host human cells. For coronavirus of COVID-19, viral proteins appears to produce in competition to host cell proteins. In place, SARS-CoV-2 infection results in increased protein production within the cell machinery.