Development of antivirals for the treatment of COVID-19

• Grant number: 20/04602-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2020
• End date: September 30, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biophysics - Molecular Biophysics
• Principal Investigator: Glaucius Oliva
• Grantee: Glaucius Oliva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: São Carlos
• Associated researchers: Adriano Defini Andricopulo ; Alberto Jose Cavalheiro ; Andre Luis Berteli Ambrosio ; Arlene Gonçalves Corrêa ; Carlos Alberto Montanari ; Carlos Roque Duarte Correia ; Carolina Borsoi Moraes ; Dulce Helena Siqueira Silva ; Edison Luiz Durigon ; Eduardo Maffud Cilli ; Fernando Antonio Santos Coelho ; Ian Castro-Gamboa ; Leila Maria Beltramini ; Lucio Holanda Gondim de Freitas Junior ; Luiz Carlos Dias ; Luiz Juliano Neto ; Márcia Regina Cominetti ; Maysa Furlan ; Mônica Tallarico Pupo ; Paolo Marinho de Andrade Zanotto ; Paulo Cézar Vieira ; Rafael Victorio Carvalho Guido ; Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani
• Associated research grant: 13/07600-3 - CIBFar - Center for Innovation in Biodiversity and Drug Discovery, AP.CEPID
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/06036-3 - Characterization of non-structural proteins Nsp13 and Nsp15 from SARS-CoV-2, and investigation of bioactive compounds with potential antiviral action, BP.PD; 20/05330-2 - Structural characterization of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus proteins, the causative agent of the infectious disease COVID-19, and search for antiviral drugs, BP.PD

Abstract

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 global pandemic with exponential growth in cases in Brazil and worldwide, there is great concern about the lethality of the disease and the saturation of hospital beds to treat severe cases. Although the search for an effective vaccine is urgent, any development should require one to two years before it is approved, so there is no expectation that they can be used during the current global pandemic. In this context, in addition to the necessary mitigating health and social measures, there is urgent need for research on drugs with antiviral activity against the SAR-Cov-2 coronavirus, which can assist in the treatment of infected patients. In this project, a primary compound screening assay will be established and standardized, in an HCS (High Content Screening) platform, using cultivated human cells and the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus isolated from Brazilian patients, under conditions of high biological safety (P3) at ICB-USP The forecast is that in this assay it will be possible to evaluate up to 4,000 compounds, being able to expand this study according to the availability of compounds and resources for the necessary reagents and consumables. Several collections of compounds will be evaluated: a library of 1500 FDA-approved compounds; all collections of natural and synthetic molecules from CIBFar / CEPID-FAPESP, which include compounds from NuBBE / IQAr / UNESP /, FCFRP / USP, LSPN-DQ-UFSCar and IQ / UNICAMP; the PITE-FAPESP / MMV / DNDi / Unicamp / USP Consortium; NEQUIMED / IQSC / USP. Fluorescent peptide probes and protease inhibitors, produced at EPM / UNIFESP, will be produced and evaluated in phenotypic and enzymatic assays, based on previous studies on the SARS-Cov coronavirus cysteine protease and also on the TMPRSS2 human serine protease, involved in the invasion by COVID-19. Compound libraries from the international organization Medicines for Malaria Ventures will be made available for screening against SARS-Cov-2 in this project: they are libraries ranging from 400 compounds (Pathogen Box and Pandemic Box) to 20-40,000 or up to 150,000 compounds with great chemical diversity. All relevant SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus proteins that are potential targets for antiviral drugs will be cloned and expressed in E.coli, and biochemical and biophysical assays will be developed to identify inhibitors and ligands. The identification of hits against SARS-Cov-2 will be important not only for their future development as candidates for new antiviral drugs, but knowledge of their chemical structures can immediately assist us in the emergency effort to reposition drugs already in clinical use for other therapeutic indications, by comparing their active pharmacophoric groups and bioisosterism methods. With the possibility of the emergence of immune escape mutants, SARS- CoV-2 genome sequencing and viral isolation will be carried out during the period of the pandemic's occurrence in Brazil to identify possible mutations in the receptor binding region. On another research front, simple and alternative synthetic routes will be developed for drugs already approved for use in humans and which are being identified as effective, albeit partially, in the treatment of COVID-19. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FREIRE, MARJORIE C. L. C.; NOSKE, GABRIELA D.; BITENCOURT, NATALIA V.; SANCHES, PAULO R. S.; SANTOS-FILHO, NORIVAL A.; GAWRILJUK, VICTOR O.; DE SOUZA, EDUARDO P.; NOGUEIRA, VICTOR H. R.; DE GODOY, MARIANA O.; NAKAMURA, ALINE M.; et al. Non-Toxic Dimeric Peptides Derived from the Bothropstoxin-I Are Potent SARS-CoV-2 and Papain-like Protease Inhibitors. Molecules, v. 26, n. 16, AUG 2021. (18/17095-8, 20/04602-9, 13/07600-3, 20/05761-3, 20/12519-4, 18/25600-4, 16/19712-9, 16/13884-2, 18/13588-0)

CUNHA, MARIELTON DOS PASSOS; DUARTE-NETO, AMARO NUNES; POUR, SHAHAB ZAKI; HAJJAR, LUDHMILA ABRAHAO; FRASSETTO, FERNANDO PEREIRA; DOLHNIKOFF, MARISA; DO NASCIMENTO SALDIVA, PAULO HILARIO; DE ANDRADE ZANOTTO, PAOLO MARINHO. Systemic dengue infection associated with a new dengue virus type 2 introduction in Brazil - a case report. BMC INFECTIOUS DISEASES, v. 21, n. 1, APR 1 2021. (20/04602-9, 13/21728-2, 17/23281-6, 16/08204-2)