Description:

Title:

Targeting nsp14 and nsp16-nsp10 as Unconventional Strategy for Treatment of SARS-CoV-2

Speaker:

Radim Nencka, PhD

Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Czech Republic 

Topic:

COVID-19, which is caused by one of only seven known coronaviruses affecting humans, SARS-CoV-2, has caused a global pandemic. It has affected our entire society in a major way, crippling not only interpersonal relations but also the economic situation worldwide. This pandemic has revealed the lack of effective drugs against infectious pathogens and the urgent need for their extensive research. In collaboration with our partners in academia and industry, we sought to explore several underappreciated molecular targets for SARS-CoV-2. In particular, we were interested in viral methyltransferases (MTases), which are responsible for methylation of the viral RNA (vRNA) cap. The methylated cap is essential for protecting vRNA against innate immunity and initiating efficient translation. SARS-CoV-2 encodes two MTases, nsp14 and nsp16, which use the nsp10 protein as a cofactor for efficient methylation. In my talk, I would like to focus on structural aspects of individual methyltransferases from SARS-CoV-2 and structure-based design of their inhibitors.

Host:

Karla Satchell, PhD

Professor

Department of Microbiology-Immunology

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Center for Structural Biology of Infectious Diseases

Chicago, Illinois