Structure-based design of antisense oligonucleotide drugs to combat COVID-19
Dr. Feng Guo is a structural biologist and biochemist who joined the UCLA School of Medicine faculty in July 2004. His current research interests include structure and function of non-coding RNA.
Dr. Feng Guo’s group developed a method to characterize the three-dimensional structure of viral RNA, which allows the design of Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) that can readily bind to the cavity of viral RNA. They developed an RNA crystallization scaffold that can be used to rapidly determine three-dimensional structures of RNA hairpin loops and their complexes with ASOs . A hairpin of interest can be engineered into this scaffold so that the hairpin is accommodated in the cavity. The fusion RNA is then crystallized and subjected to structure determination using X-ray crystallography. This novel structural determination method allows iterative rounds of structure-based refinement for designing ASO to target SARS-CoV-2.
ASOs can be used to treat infections by binding to viral RNA and inactivating it. This technology can therefore be used to target the viral RNA of SARS-CoV-2.
Additional Information:
Link to lab home page: http://www.biolchem.ucla.edu/labs/guo/GuoLab.html
Link to PI's bio: https://www.biolchem.ucla.edu/people/faculty/feng-guo
Link to relevant cases: 2018-717