The coronavirus sneaks into cells through a key receptor. Could targeting it lead to a treatment?
Nearly 20 years ago, when a different coronavirus struck, Michael Farzan and his team figured out how it was getting into human cells: targeting a specific receptor called ACE2 found on certain cells.
During this year’s ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak, that receptor has attracted fresh attention as a potential target for drug companies because it seems to offer a cellular doorknob for this coronavirus, too.
Farzan, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute’s Florida campus, and other experts believe treatments targeting ACE2, or angiotensin converting enzyme-2, could be the key to unlocking either a coronavirus vaccine or a treatment for Covid-19. The work targeting the receptor is one pathway among dozens that biotech and pharmaceutical companies are exploring as they race to find drugs that could help bring the pandemic under control.
Three pharmaceutical companies are working on two ACE2-related drugs — each working with the receptor in
