Our Screening paper “Exploring the druggability of conserved RNA regulatory elements in the SARS-CoV-2 genome” published in Angewandte Chemie already received quite some attention in several media. Additionally, a recent published article in the national newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung highlights the outcome of different research groups involved in drug discovery against SARS-CoV-2, including the International Covid19-NMR Consortium.
To treat people already suffering on a Covid19 infection, the development of safe and efficient drugs against SARS-CoV-2 is essential. In our paper 768 compounds were screened for their binding ability to 15 RNA elements of SARS-CoV-2. 69 fragments of these 768 compounds bound to 13 of 15 RNA elements and three fragments highly specific. These three compounds might be promising candidates for further drug development against the SARS-CoV-2 infection. With two thirds of the RNA in an infected cell belonging to the virus, the replication of the virus could by these highly specific binders.