Our Screening paper “Exploring the druggability of conserved RNA regulatory elements in the SARS-CoV-2 genome” is now online in Angewandte Chemie. A poised fragment library of 768 compounds was screened for the binding ability to 15 RNA elements of SARS-CoV-2. 69 fragments bound to 13 of 15 RNA elements and three fragments highly specific. Those three compounds might be interesting for further drug development against the SARS-CoV-2 infection, since two third of the RNA in an infected cell belongs to the virus.
Many positive reactions followed on social media and in press. The publication was highlighted in a recent press release by the Goethe University and also mentioned in the national newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.