Replication analysis questions:
Antiviral drugs try to block the function of particular virus proteins. The coronavirus is a very simple virus, with only 4 proteins: nucleocapsid (which surrounds the RNA genome), spike, membrane, envelope, and polymerase. Answer the following questions about potential coronavirus antivirals using this replication cycle.
1. Which viral protein would you target in order to prevent the coronavirus from entering host cells?
2.Which viral protein would you target in order to prevent the coronavirus from replicating its genome?
3.If a drug prevented the spike, membrane, and envelope proteins from clustering, how would that specifically affect the coronavirus replication?
4.Challenge question: Antiretroviral drugs are used to treat HIV. Some antiretroviral drugs have been shown to inhibit the 2019-nCov replication in cell culture (Nelfinavir was predicted to be a potential inhibitor of 2019-nCov main protease by an integrative approach combining homology modelling, molecular docking and binding free energy calculation). See the HIV replication cycle below and the table of some effective antiretroviral drugs and their targets. What are the similarities and differences between the two cycles? If you were to choose one of the antiretroviral drugs to test against the coronavirus, which one would you expect to be most effective and why?
