Scientists target the next pandemic with a “map” to victory over the virus

An international team of scientists has created powerful new resources to speed up the development of vaccines and therapies to combat the next pandemic.

Wladek Minor, a researcher at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and a collaborator in China and Poland have developed an internet information system called virusMED. It lays out everything we know about the atomic structure and potential vulnerabilities of over 800 virus strains from 75 different virus families. Includes SARS-CoV-2, influenza, Ebola and HIV-1. Several collaborators, including Principal Investigator Heping Zheng, are former students and members of UVA’s minor labs.

This new panorama of potential threatening proteins helps scientists respond quickly and effectively to the next pathogens that are ready to disrupt humanity. Minor and his collaborators compare resources to Google Maps in that they organize and annotate key points of interest about viruses that scientists can use as a roadmap for drug and vaccine development. ..

“The fight against COVID-19 isn’t over yet, but I can’t wait to start preparing for the next pandemic,” said a minor professor of molecular physiology and biophysics at UVA. “VirusMED is the first step towards an advanced information system that brings together researchers with diverse expertise to tackle complex biomedical challenges. The information contained in virusMED is used by virus researchers in many disciplines, especially It assists researchers working on drug design and antiviral therapy. It provides new structural analysis and integrates relevant information from a variety of resources to provide a comprehensive overview of the most important and vulnerable areas of the protein. Provides. “

Virus hotspot

By quickly elucidating the mechanism of action of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, scientists have been able to develop a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19. Minor’s new database aims to put such important information in one convenient place at the fingertips of scientists.

VirusMED contains extensive information about virus species and strains, hosts, viral proteins and antibodies, and drugs already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, as well as other important scientific data. Researchers call the points of interest for the virus “hotspots,” which provide a powerful starting point for drug and vaccine development.

“One of the most promising strain-indifferent antibody therapies developed for the treatment of COVID-19 is a unique antibody isolated from survivors infected with the SARS virus in 2003 using this type of information. Has improved, “says David Cooper. Research faculty member in the minor laboratory. “People who are surprised at the rapid drug and vaccine design are unaware that today’s researchers are building on decades of previous research.”

According to Miner, one of the main benefits of virusMED is that it brings together existing knowledge about viruses in one place. Previously, the data was distributed across multiple resources and was “siled” for easy access. virusMED allows researchers to view information by virus or by hotspot of interest.

All free accessible databases are located at: https://virusmed.biocloud.top..

“One of the goals of my lab is to create tools that other scientists can use. We look at the forest and find ways to help others focus on the trees.” Said Minor. “Resource generation is unattractive, but the ultimate goal of science is to make life better. One of the anonymous reviewers of the treatise claims that they soon became enthusiastic users of the system. I hope virusMED really makes a difference. “

Published survey results

Researcher has Published their findings in the scientific journal IUCr Journal.. The work will appear on the cover of the journal. The research team consisted of Hui Hui Zhang, Pei Chen, Haojie Ma, Magdalena Woinska, Dejian Liu, Cooper, Guo Peng, Yousong Peng, Lei Deng, Minor and Zheng.

This work was supported by the Hunan Natural Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Minor and Cooper were supported by the National Institute of Health Sciences, Grant R01-GM132595.

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