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Ewelina Węglarz-Tomczak, PhD. from the Faculty of Chemistry is conducting research at the University of Amsterdam that may help develop a medicine for COVID-19. Its first results have just been published in Scientific Report.
Effective treatment of the COVID-19 disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (CoV2), remains a challenge. Although vaccination schemes have started in many countries, there is still a need for an effective medicine.
Ewelina Węglarz-Tomczak, PhD., a postdoctoral fellow in the Netherlands, has initiated research in collaboration with scientists hailing from various fields to find molecules that can serve as potential inhibitors of the virus. Preliminary results of the work have shown that ebselen may be such a compound.
– It can inhibit PLpro protease activity rapidly and irreversibly. This is already effective with a very low dose, at the micromolar level. At these levels, ebselen shows negligible toxicity in cells and should therefore be safe to use – explains the chemist.
Then, Dr Węglarz-Tomczak tested various ebselen derivatives for PLpro inhibition. After analysing eleven such compounds that showed activity against PLpro in SARS and CoV2 viruses, four molecules were identified as the most potent inhibitors against PLpro from CoV2 discovered to date.
Very promising in terms of developing an effective drug for the coronavirus, the results have just been published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports.
– For us, this is the crowning moment of the first phase of research. Our discovery may contribute to the development of therapies against COVID-19 – believes Ewelina Węglarz-Tomczak, PhD.
Other researchers involved in the project were Jakub Tomczak, PhD, a graduate and former employee of WUST who currently works at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam as Assistant Professor, Mirosław Giurg, PhD, from our university’s Department of Organic and Medical Chemistry, Michał Talma from WUST’s Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, and Professor Stanley Brul from Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Ewelina Węglarz-Tomaczak, PhD. plans to continue her work under a grant from Innovation Exchange Amsterdam.
