Adaptive Evolution of Peptide Inhibitors for Mutating SARS-CoV-2.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is currently causing a worldwide pandemic with dramatic societal consequences for the humankind. In the past decades, disease outbreaks due to such zoonotic pathogens have appeared with an accelerated rate, which calls for an urgent development of adaptive (smart) therapeutics. Here, a computational strategy is developed to adaptively evolve peptides that could selectively inhibit mutating S protein receptor binding domains (RBDs) of different SARS-CoV-2 viral strains from binding to their human host receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

A non-antibacterial oxazolidinone derivative that inhibits epithelial cell sheet migration.

We have developed a high-throughput assay for screening chemical libraries for compounds that affect cell sheet migration during wound closure in epithelial cell monolayers. By using this assay, we have discovered a new inhibitor of cell sheet migration. This compound (UIC-1005) is a 3,4-disubstituted oxazolidinone that bears an electrophilic alpha,beta-unsaturated N-acyl group required for activity.