Breakthrough! Scientists have identified 40 new drugs to fight COVID-19!

!--. -- Researchers at Northeastern University have identified 40 new drugs that could be used to treat COVID-19.
Wednesday, the Center for Complex Network Science at Northeastern University reported the discovery from a network science-based infection dynamics modeling tool that includes complex math, physics, and computation.
tool set depicts how proteins in human cells behave after cells are hijacked by SARS-CoV-2.
SARS-CoV-2 is a new type of coronavirus that can cause COVID-19 disease.
we've prioritized more drugs, but we're actually pushing ahead with 40 drugs," said Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, a professor of cyberscience and distinguished physics at Northeastern University.
Barabasi's team has been in discussions with experimental biologists at Harvard University to begin testing the drugs in human cell line.
: The interaction of different types of proteins within cells plays a key role in coordinating the complex bio-chemical responses that control our bodies.
that's why the best way to understand how viruses spread is to identify all the molecular interactions in human cells and the networks they form when proteins interact with genetic material in cells.
almost all diseases are transmitted through cell networks, " he said.
virus has a particularly fast way to do this because it is invading cells, in which case it has 26 proteins that effectively disturb multiple points in the network very quickly and effectively.
" Barabasi originally developed the model in 2012 with a team of researchers to study other human viruses, and predicted that SARS-CoV-2 might attack cells in the brain.
may help explain recent reports that early COVID-19 symptoms include loss of sense of smell and taste, according to the report.
list of new drugs adds to other possible treatments that researchers have identified.
Barabasi's model identified several of these drugs, as well as other drugs that were not considered.
we can do this because we don't have limits on the drugs we use to attack proteins that attack those viruses," Barabasi said.
"We can also find drugs that target targets of the virus."
" after entering the human body, SARS-CoV-2 quickly hijacks human cells and transforms them into viral replication machines.
the virus relies on a prominent set of proteins, all other types of coronavirus are named after it -- a set of coronavirus-like spikes.
these viral proteins attach to the proteins of healthy cells, they disrupt the basic function of cells and cause them to produce millions of different viruses.
first step in modeling viral infections is to understand which proteins help SARS-CoV-2 attacks hijack human cells.
researchers recently reported 332 such proteins.
Barabasi's tool set simulates the role of 332 proteins targeted by coronavirus and predicts other mechanisms in which these proteins may trigger symptoms of COVID-19 in cells.
the model focuses on drugs that fight the virus, not only to meso-protein S when the virus first targets human cells, but also to interfere with other interactions between human proteins and genes.
these treatments target areas where inocellular viruses work, not directly at viruses, and may affect the protein coding required for SARS-CoV-2 proliferation.
as long as we identify the area where the virus is attacking, we can determine which drugs are likely to strike the same area, so we can fight the virus effectively," Barabasi said.
" and, he says, the best candidates may be those that don't target the proteins that SARS-CoV-2 initially attacked, but work in the same subcells.
"there are very few drugs on the market that directly target the disease protein itself," Barabasi said.
"just knowing what protein the virus is targeting is not enough for us to find this drug, and we need to have a very clear understanding of the proximity of these attack points in the network."
" Marina Zitnik, assistant professor of biomedical information at Harvard Medical School, uses machine learning to help Barabasi's team comb through existing data on drugs that are already on the market or in clinical trials that can be used to treat COVID-19.
photo source: Albert-Lászl? Barabási BarabasiLab 2019 Joseph Loscalzo is Professor of Theory and Practice in Hershey Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of The Medical Department, and Chief Physician of Brigham and Women's Hospital.
barabasi said the team's progress and updates will be posted online as soon as possible to help the global scientific community resolve the COVID-19 crisis at an extremely rapid pace.
report containing more data and information will be published online in preprinted form and submitted to peer-reviewed journals.
we are publishing the results so that others can study them immediately," he said.
we urgently need to make progress in this area, and we cannot be slaves to existing academic or business models.
() Reference: 1 Network scientists identify 40 new drugs to test against COVID-19 (2) A SARS-CoV-2-Human Protein-Protein Interaction Map Map Reveals Drug Targets and Potential Drug-Repurposing !-- /ewebeditor: page -- !--webeditor: page title" -- 3 Viral Perturbations of Host Networks Reflect Disease Etiology !--/ewebeditor:page--