Help defeat the coronavirus!
Folding@home brings together researchers around the world who are working to better study the coronavirus 2019-nCoV and accelerate scientific efforts to develop new methods of saving people. By installing the proposed software, everyone can donate unused computing resources of their computer to the Folding@home consortium, whose researchers are working to improve understanding of the structures of potential targets for drugs against 2019-nCoV, and help in the development of new treatments.
The data that users will help generate in this way will be quickly and openly distributed within the framework of an open scientific collaboration of several laboratories around the world, providing researchers with new tools for the development of vital medicines.
2019-nCoV is a close relative of the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and acts in a similar way. For both coronaviruses, the first stage of infection occurs in the lungs when a protein on the surface of the virus binds to a receptor protein on a lung cell. This viral protein is called a spike (marked in red in the image below), and the receptor is angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).
An illustration created by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows the ultrastructural morphology of the coronavirus. Pay attention to the spikes located on the outer surface of the virus, which give it the appearance of a crown surrounding the virion.
A therapeutic antibody is a protein that can block the binding of a viral protein to a receptor and prevent the virus from infecting lung cells. A therapeutic antibody has already been developed for SARS-CoV, but to create therapeutic antibodies or small molecules against 2019-nCoV, scientists need to better understand the structure of the viral spike protein and the mechanism of its binding to the ACE2 receptor necessary for the virus to enter human cells.
Squirrels move all the time – they sway, fold and unfold, taking various forms. Therefore, it is necessary to study not one form of the viral spike, but all possible options, taking into account the fluctuation of the protein and folding into alternative forms. This will allow us to better understand how the spike interacts with the ACE2 receptor, and to select a therapeutic antibody. The structures of the SARS-CoV viral spike already exist, but they are low-resolution, and the shapes of the spike differ in SARS-CoV and 2019-nCoV. We have the opportunity to assist in modeling the structure of the 2019-nCoV spike protein and identify areas where a therapeutic antibody can be targeted. To do this, you need to build mathematical models, but they require sufficient computing power.
Everyone can participate in the work by installing the program Folding@home and selecting the "Any Disease" tab – the developers have not yet made an option to direct resources specifically to the coronavirus, but they promise to notify when they implement this function. One protein 2019-nCoV, a protease encoded by viral RNA, has already been crystallized. And although the spike protein of interest 2019-nCoV has not yet been deciphered, it is possible to use the homologous structure of the SARS-CoV spike to identify targets of therapeutic antibodies.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of FOLDING@HOME: FOLDING@HOME Takes Up The Fight Against COVID-19/2019-NCOV.