Many medications are being tested to treat COVID-19, including brand new drugs designed specifically for COVID-19, such as vaccines, and others. But what if we already have the right tools to tackle covid? By understanding which human proteins the virus uses to enter our human cells, we can identify existing drugs to target these protein interactions, and design better ones, too.

This research project created a protein interaction map to target sigma receptors using old and new drugs already on the shelf. Dr. David Gordon, Associate Professor at the University of California San Francisco joins us to speak about the recent manuscript published in the journal Nature. An international effort by a team of over 120 scientists, they developed a protein interaction map showing that the virus can bind to at least 332 human proteins to enter our cells to spread infection.

The study demonstrates that 69 existing drugs (FDA approved or in pre-clinical development) harbor the structure and function needed to block COVID from infecting the cell, stop it's progression, or both.

Open access article link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2286-9

Find Dr. David Gordon twitter: @davidezragordon

SARS-COV-2 cadaver article published May 13, 2020 addendum: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2011400

Find Dr. David Gordon twitter: @davidezragordon SARS-COV-2 cadaver article published May 13, 2020 addendum: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2011400

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