What if We Could Give Viruses a One-Two Punch?

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What if We Could Give Viruses a One-Two Punch? - Berkeley Lab

Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry helps Stanford researcher design virus-fighting molecules that could treat herpes and COVID-19

Our bodies' very own virus-fighting machines are powered by antimicrobial peptides, which are among the most powerful biochemicals of the human immune system.

For decades, researchers have wanted to leverage these peptides’ natural virus-combat skills into new drug therapies. But peptides are vulnerable to enzymes that rapidly break them down in a way that robs them of their therapeutic properties.

“Because of their vulnerability to enzymatic breakdown, peptides are not ideal drugs. They’re expensive to produce, and yet they must be given in large doses because they disintegrate so quickly in the body,” said Annelise Barron, an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford School of Engineering.

But now, Barron and a team of scientists, including researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, have created peptide-like molecules called “peptoids” that can inactivate viruses. The researchers believe that the technology could make possible an emerging category of antiviral drugs that could treat everything from herpes and COVID-19 to the common cold. Although years of development and testing remain before these peptoid-based antiviral drugs can be commercialized, the researchers say that their results, which they recently published in the journal Pharmaceuticals, are extremely encouraging.
 
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