Exonuclease News and Research

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The frequency and nature of RNA errors in both SARS-CoV-2 and its vaccine

A recent article demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 mutants and vaccine variability stem from ribonucleic acid polymerase inaccuracy.

6 Jun 2022

Nanotechnology enhanced DNA-chip for SARS-CoV-2 detection with variant differentiation

Researchers differentiated between SARS-CoV-2 variants using nanotechnology.

26 May 2022

Is COVID-19 on the verge of ending?

Researchers explore the changes arising in SARS-CoV-2 over time.

21 Mar 2022

Novel targets to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 variants

A new study identified additional targets on SARS-CoV-2 proteins to prevent the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

16 Mar 2022

Study reveals the potential of novel antiviral drug combinations to stop COVID-19 spread

Researchers from Columbia Engineering, Fiocruz's Center for Technological Development in Health and the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Brazil, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Rockefeller University recently reported that, by combining inhibitors of polymerases and exonucleases--enzymes that allow SARS-CoV-2 to reproduce--they were able to reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication 10 times more than when using just the polymerase inhibitors.

7 Mar 2022

Study identifies current mechanism of action behind reduced severity of Omicron variant COVID-19 infection

New research shows evidence that the Omicron variant is less severe compared to the Delta variant.

6 Jan 2022

Emergence of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant from Southern France

A new study has described the emergence of another new SARS-CoV-2 variant from south-eastern France with Cameroonian origin.

6 Jan 2022

Impact of the rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Southern Africa

A new study has focused on the genomic profile and early transmission dynamics of Omicron. This study revealed the dominance of the Omicron variant in regions with high levels of population immunity.

23 Dec 2021

The antiviral potential of 4′-fluorouridine as an oral treatment against RSV and SARS-CoV-2

New research reports 4’-Fluorouridine (4′-FlU) as an oral antiviral against RSV and SARS-CoV-2.

7 Dec 2021

Ensemble cryo-electron microscopy uncovers conformational states of the nsp13 helicase of SARS-CoV-2

With this background, the goal of a new study published on the bioRxiv* preprint server was to use cryo-electron microscopy to investigate the nsp13 helicase conformational states in order to gain insights of how nsp13 functions during viral transcription/replication.

16 Nov 2021

GIST researchers unravel coordination mechanism of base excision repair

A new study by researchers from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in the Republic of Korea has revealed the mechanism of DNA repair by enzymes exonuclease III and polymerase I by utilizing single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET)-enabled dynamic observation.

14 Sep 2021

New study identifies novel compound as promising pan-coronavirus drug candidate

A recent study describes a novel compound with frameshifting capability against MERS-CoV, inhibiting viral propagation within infected cells.

23 Aug 2021

How replication and recombination contribute to emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been caused by the rapid outbreak of a novel coronavirus, namely, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 was first reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Since then, the virus has already claimed more than 4.3 million lives worldwide.

13 Aug 2021

New article focuses on drug discovery targeting SARS-CoV-2

The July edition of SLAS Discovery is a Special Edition featuring the cover article, "Development of a High-Throughput Screening Assay to Identify Inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 Guanine-N7-Methyltransferase Using RapidFire Mass Spectrometry" by Lesley-Anne Pearson, Charlotte J. Green, Ph.D., De Lin, Ph.D., Alain-Pierre Petit, Ph.D., David W. Gray, Ph.D., Victoria H. Cowling, Ph.D., and Euan A. F. Fordyce, Ph.D., (Drug Discovery Unit, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK).

1 Jul 2021

SARS-CoV-2 NSP14 induces potent inflammation via NF-κB pathways, finds study

SARS-CoV-2 has a single-stranded RNA genome encoding both structural and non-structural proteins. Of these, the latter is known to play a variety of roles in viral replication and the assembly of new viral particles, as well as in suppressing cellular immune responses. A new study reports the activity of one such protein, the non-structural protein 14 (NSP14), which activates the inflammatory mediator NF-κB to trigger intense inflammation.

31 May 2021

SARS-CoV-2 spike mutation can independently predict viral evolution

A team of scientists from Portugal has recently estimated the rate of mutation in two circulating variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) using experimental evolution methods. Their findings reveal that in a condition with no immune surveillance, SARS-CoV-2 can potentially undergo evolution during the first stages of infection. The study is currently available on the bioRxiv* preprint server.

21 May 2021

Scientists use cryo-electron microscopy to unravel how 'guardian' of the genome works

Scientists from the Genomic Integrity and Structural Biology Group led by Rafael Fernández-Leiro at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre have discovered how certain proteins ensure the repair of errors introduced into the DNA during its replication.

6 Apr 2021