[SCAN] Design of Mini Therapeutic Proteins Against SARS-CoV-2

Title: Design of Mini Therapeutic Proteins Against SARS-CoV-2

Speaker: Carlos Cruz

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has become the most important health crisis in recent decades, with several critical outcomes, including the deaths of millions of people and serious economic consequences worldwide. In this scenario, protein engineering has emerged as a powerful tool for the rapid development of potential therapeutic molecules to combat this disease. In this sense, the SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors have been developed using the latest in protein rational design through the virus-cell interaction knowledge. Spike is a large SARS-CoV-2 structural protein that plays an important role in infection, attaching the virus at the host cell surface by binding to the ACE2 receptor, thus initiating the membrane fusion process and entry into cell. Therefore, a reasonable assumption is to prevent the Spike-ACE2 interaction by designing a competitive inhibitor of that interaction. For this purposes, we designed  mini binders SARS-CoV-2 by i) motif grafting, ii) motif design and iii) de novo design, combining powerful protein rational design algorithms and molecular dynamics simulations, aligned to the deep understanding of Spike-ACE2 interactions. Here, we will present the basic principles of these designs as well as the preliminary computational results and perspectives for a new round of design of mini therapeutic proteins.

ITQB NOVA Virtual Auditorium

Join the session: https://zoom.us/j/93139069443