U of L using statewide computer network to help find COVID-19 cure

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The University of Louisville is tapping into classroom computers throughout the state to look for a COVID-19 cure.

In addition, the network is screening 37 million small molecules and compounds to determine if they can be used to develop new drugs to treat COVID-19.

WDRB

The university is using its Dataseam Grid, a network of computers housed in classrooms of 48 Kentucky school districts, to scan about 11,000 drugs for their potential efficacy against the virus.

“We take a library of different molecules and we see individually which one fits to the place where want to block a particular activity,” said John Trent, a chemist and deputy director of basic and translational research at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center.

COVID-19 3D structure of the main protease for SARS-CoV-2, University of Louisville, illustration — The 3D structure of the main protease for SARS-CoV-2. (Courtesy of U of L.)

U of L said in a news release that Trent and his team “are screening the drugs and small molecules against 3D structures of four proteins in the virus to see which compounds might bind with the proteins. A drug that interferes with the activity of any of these proteins would reduce the virus’s ability to spread.”

So far, the process has identified about 30 drugs as potentially effective, but researchers say it could be at least another year before testing begins in patients.

“You take one of these small molecules and you see what fits in the right place,” Trent said. “That sounds easy but when you have 35 million of these it takes an awfully long time to do that.”