A TREATMENT for SARS, pneumonia and the common cold may be in sight. By targeting a protein that all these so-called coronaviruses share, it might be possible to stop viral replication and prevent disease.
Most viral proteins mutate quickly, meaning vaccines can become ineffective in a matter of months. But in the wake of the SARS outbreak in 2003, researchers developed an antiviral that interfered with the SARS virus’s main protease, a protein that controls and activates viral replication. Because the protease target is stable and slow to evolve, the treatment is likely to keep on working even as the…
