A team of scientists from the University of Geneva, in Sweden, has found inhibitory substances capable of blocking the entry of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 into the body’s cells.
To penetrate the body’s cells, many viruses use the cellular absorption mechanism.
The study published in the journal Chemical Science analyzed the potentially inhibitory substances of SARS-CoV-2 and also carried out cell uptake tests of sulfur molecules that were labeled with fluorescent probes to assess their presence inside with the help of a fluorescent microscope.
In this way, the scientists concluded that some inhibitors are 5,000 times more effective than the Ellman’s reagent, which was used to identify groups of thiols. According to the results of the study, one of the irreversible covalent inhibitors is capable of blocking the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells.
The scientists concluded that the result of this study may be relevant for the development of future coronavirus drugs, although they also recommended that a specific process should be followed for this.
