COVID-19 blockers: A review of new strategy to inhibit COVID-19 invasion by peptides

COVID-19 blockers: A review of new strategy to inhibit COVID-19 invasion by peptides
Atiyeh Ahmadi,^1,* Hamidreza Hojjat,²
1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
2. Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Introduction: The emerging coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a very serious threat to the health of people around the world, so it is essential to search for prevention and safe and effective treatment against the acute coronavirus syndrome 2(SARS-CoV-2), which Also known as the 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The main cause of SARS-CoV-2 infection is the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the host surface receptor protein, the human angiotensin-converting enzyme (hACE2). Therefore, blocking the early entry of the virus can be a promising strategy/treatment to fight SARS CoV-2 infection. In this article, we reviewed several researches that investigate this issue.
Methods: The strategy used in these researches was to design specific peptides that are spatially and chemically complementary to the cell surface receptor (hACE2) or virus spike. Then, developing a computational setup to simulate molecular dynamics and calculated the binding energy. In silico and experimentally optimization of designed peptides were applied for the proper target binding, folding and stability.
Results: A number of peptides designed to block SARS-CoV-2 have been proposed. It has been shown that some of them can reduce the virus load in the cell by blocking cell surface receptors, blocking the spike of the virus particle, or preventing the virus from binding to the cell receptor at the cell entry stage.
Conclusion: Findings from the reviewed research may provide a new antiviral treatment for COVID-19, which may address the global crisis of the disease. Therefore, the results of this research can give an interesting direction to the existing prevention and treatment processes.
Keywords: COVID-19, Peptides, hACE2, SARS-CoV-2