Scholarship 22/11106-3 - SARS-CoV-2 - BV FAPESP
Advanced search
Start date
Betweenand
Related content

SEARCH FOR BIOACTIVE MOLECULES WITH INHIBITORY ACTION ON SARS-COV-2 NSP13 NON-STRUCTURAL PROTEIN, USING ENZYMATIC SCREENING AND FRAGMENT SCREENING

Grant number: 22/11106-3
Support Opportunities:Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
Start date until: October 01, 2022
End date until: February 12, 2023
Field of knowledge:Biological Sciences - Biophysics - Molecular Biophysics
Principal Investigator:Glaucius Oliva
Grantee:Luana Galvão Morão
Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
Associated research grant:13/07600-3 - CIBFar - Center for Innovation in Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The emergence of a new coronavirus in 2019 generated a pandemic that has lasted until now, so the search for candidates for new antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2 has become a priority. The nonstructural protein Nsp13, encoded in the viral genome, is an enzyme with helicase activity dependent on ATP hydrolysis, being essential for viral replication and, therefore, an attractive target within the scope of drug design strategy. In this context, this proposal continues the work started by the candidate as a post-doc (Proc. FAPESP 2021/06036-3) with a BCO scholarship granted in a project approved in the FAPESP COVID-19 call (Proc. FAPESP 2020/04602-9), which resulted in the description of the cloning, overexpression and purification of the Nsp13 enzyme in an expression system based on E.coli. Post-doctoral fellow Luana G. Morão, awarded with the grant for the aforementioned project, also established biophysical and biochemical assays to screen collections of compounds, focusing on the ATPase and helicase activities of Nsp13. Therefore, the present proposal aims to investigate collections of natural and synthetic molecules from CIBFar/CEPID-FAPESP and libraries of compounds from the international organization Medicines for Malaria Ventures (MMV), as well as other collections from external collaborators of the CIBFar. We also aim to use the Structure-Based Drug Discovery (SBDD) method, involving computational screens of large libraries of compounds, as another strategy to be implemented in this proposal. Thus, obtaining the crystallographic structure for soaking and other evaluations about the binding affinity betweenbiactive compounds with Nsp13 will be investigated and explored. Compounds that show promisinginhibitory activity on Nsp13 will be evaluated in in vitro models of cellular infection by SARS-CoV2 and will be optimized for their potency and selectivity properties, aiming to obtain candidatemolecules for advanced preclinical studies. This project is linked to CIBFar - Center for Innovation in Biodiversity and Pharmaceuticals - CIBFar/CEPID (Proc. 2013/07600-3).

News published in Agência FAPESP Newsletter about the scholarship:
More itemsLess items
Articles published in other media outlets ( ):
More itemsLess items
VEICULO: TITULO (DATA)
VEICULO: TITULO (DATA)

Please report errors in scientific publications list using this form.