University of California discovered a new substance capable of helping COVID-19. K777, which is considered as a potential remedy for Shatagas’s disease, unexpectedly turned out to be an effective inhibitor of the Catence L – enzyme that promotes the infection of human cells with a virus. The opening is reported in the article published in the ACS Chemical Biology magazine.
It is known that SARS-COV-2 cannot be joined by human cells and infect them if the human enzyme called Catence L does not split the S-protein (spike) of the virus. At the same time, the cape of the structure is very similar to Cruzain, which is produced by the Parasite Trypanosoma Cruzi, the causative agent of Sagas’s disease (American Tripanosomoz). This is a tropical disease that is chronic and contributes to heart failure and other irreversible damage to the internal organs.
Researchers have shown that low concentrations of K777 inhibit Catexin L, which can reduce the ability of SARS-COV-2 to infect cells without applying it harm. Different cell lines were used in the experiments, but not all the inhibitor had an effective impact. Specialists associate this so that not all cell lines produce the same amount of Catence L or the same amount of ACE2. ACE2 is a cell receptor that protein-spike virus uses for fixing on the cell membrane after its splitting by the Catence L.
The tested cell lines were obtained from the kidney epithelial of African green monkeys, the epithelium of the cervix of the human uterus and two types of lung human epithelium. They are cancer cells, so their molecular characteristics may differ from healthy human lung cells or cervical cervix.
At the same time, it is shown that the experimental therapeutic agent based on K777 prevents damage to the lungs when coronavirus is infected with animals and is well tolerated by people who participated in clinical trials.