COVID-19 research happens in CERMM

The emerging COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) global pandemic is caused by 2019-Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 or nCoV-19), the new member of the coronaviruses (CoVs) family of enveloped and single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses that have been responsible for previous zoonotic (SARS and MERS) infectious outbreaks. Drs. Satyavani Kaliamurthi and Gurudeeban Selvaraj, Mitacs Academic Visitors in the Centre for Research in Molecular Modeling, are advancing research to fight the deadly virus with computer modeling and simulations in two main directions: the development of a chimeric vaccine candidate (to prevent the disease) and the search for an antiviral protein-inhibitor drug target (to curtail the disease once contracted).

The structure of the nCoV-19 main protease (3CL protease) has recently been reported, and because of its essential role in mediating nCoV-19 viral replication and transcription, it is an ideal antiviral drug target. Selvaraj is screening potential candidate drugs for targeting the virus main protease with computer-aided (de novo pharmacophore-based) drug design, artificial intelligence (neural network exploration of target libraries), docking and biosimulations. Collaborators are preparing to synthesize the lead compounds from this investigation for experimental validation (pre-clinical models) and to possibly inform the rational computer-aided design of better drug molecules via a synergistic approach.

Drs. Satyavani Kaliamurthi and Gurudeeban Selvaraj were awarded post-doctoral scholarships from Mitacs to visit the Centre for Research in Molecular Modeling (CERMM) as part of a developing partnership with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences – Computational Life Sciences, Henan University of Technology, China. The team of researchers implicated in this collaboration includes Profs. Gilles H. Peslherbe (CERMM, Concordia University), Dongqing Wei (CERMM, Henan University of Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Shen-Lian Biomedical Corporation), William C. Cho (Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong) and Keren Gu (Henan University of Technology).