Non pharmaceutical

The COVID-19 pandemic is driving research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus to find vaccines and treatment methods. Synthetic peptides are playing a big role in developing vaccines. Researchers from the University of Oxford have used in silico methods to identify 63 peptides as potential vaccine targets. In addition to vaccines, peptides are also being investigated as therapeutics to treat or prevent infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Researchers' studies verified that EK1 (a pan-coronavirus fusion inhibiting peptide) could significantly inhibit infection in ACE2 espressing 293T cells. The other research group has reported that linking cholesterol through a PEG4 linker to the C-terminal of EK1 produced a product (EK1C4) with potent inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV-2.