The research enables scientists to quickly create large libraries of nucleoside analogs (NAs), compounds that mimic the building blocks of DNA and RNA and are widely used to treat cancer and viral infections such as HIV and hepatitis.
The new method could significantly reduce the time and resources needed for early-stage drug discovery.
“This is a game changer for making and modifying nucleosides,” explains Robert Britton, chemistry professor and lead author of the study. “In an emerging outbreak, the more compounds you can screen, the better your chances of finding something effective. With this method, we can produce libraries 10 to 100 times larger in just weeks, rather than months or years.”
“We have lots of pain killers and a wide collection of antibiotics, but we don’t have a good of a panel of antivirals, which is why viral outbreaks like COVID-19, or Ebola, or hantavirus scare people so much,” says Britton. “Finding viable drug candidates is extremely challenging.”
To identify new treatments, scientists typically screen libraries of molecules to find promising “hits” for further development. This approach helped companies like Merck & Co. and Gilead Sciences develop early COVID-19 treatments.
