January 28, 2021

expert reaction to study looking at how vitamins, steroids and potential antivirals might affect SARS-CoV-2

A study published in Angewandte Chemie suggests that some vitamins, steroids and antivirals could bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and may inhibit virus infectivity.

Prof Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Nottingham, said:

“”Unfortunately ‘might work’ and ‘will work’ are often poles apart. Identifying potential antivirals is a good starting point, but there’s a lot of work to do to show that lead chemicals work in the clinic and can effectively treat patients.

“In these worrying times of quack remedies and snake oil salesmen, it’s really important to understand that this study, and others like it, have identified interventions that might have an effect, but this needs to be proven through laboratory and human experimentation.”

‘Molecular simulations suggest vitamins, retinoids and steroids as ligands binding the free fatty acid pocket of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein’ by  Toelzer et al is published in Angewandte Chemie.

https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202015639

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

None received.