ALBANY, N.Y., Aug. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- YDS Pharmatech announced the publication of a paper revealing a novel human viral recognition mechanism in Nature Chemical Biology today. The publication was co-authored by Xing Che, Ph.D., founder and CEO of YDS Pharmatech, and by researchers at Tianjin Medical University led by Prof. Heng Zhang. The company helped reveal a new viral protein recognition mechanism, highlighting a promising new target for antiviral drugs.

An important immune response factor, TRIM7, coordinates the attachment of ubiquitin to cellular proteins, tagging them for protein degradation. Recently, TRIM7 was also shown to have activity against human enterovirus, but the mechanism by which TRIM7 recognizes viral proteins remained unknown. In this study, YDS Pharmatech helped identify the specific molecular mechanism by which TRIM7 recognizes viral infection.

A series of structural mutation studies performed by the Tianjin Medical University researchers indicated that the glutamine amino acid at the end of the viral protein drives recognition by TRIM7. YDS's protein dynamics simulations further consolidate the conclusion. Their atomic-level simulations showed how a subtle single mutation disrupts the interactions between the viral peptide and TRIM7, disrupting the protein's antiviral role. Moreover, these findings helped point to additional viral proteins that are recognized by TRIM7, including norovirus and SARS-CoV-2 proteins.

Founder and CEO at YDS Pharmatech, Xing Che, Ph.D., says of this recent work, "We are glad YDS Pharmatech was able to contribute to this innovative research that will help to advance the E3 ligase, TRIM7, as a novel drug target for developing antiviral agents against several viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and for developing new targeted protein degradation therapeutics."

"New, more effective drugs are needed to address human health challenges," said James Kuo, MD, MBA, former CEO and co-founder of TRYP Therapeutics and advisor to YDS Pharmatech. "YDS Pharmatech uses innovative computational approaches to solve complex problems in biology. This is a great example of how this company brings value to drug discovery and scientific research."

To learn more, read the full paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-022-01128-x

About YDS Pharmatech

YDS Pharmatech is a privately held drug design company located in Albany, NY. The company has developed a proprietary drug design engine known as MERES™ (Modify-Evaluate-Reinforce-Evolve-Sampling). By leveraging a novel AI and biophysics computational platform, MERES™ shifts drug discovery away from random screening and towards an efficient, directed exploration of the chemical space. The company is also expanding its business to enzyme design by using AI to guide the exploration of protein sequence space towards stronger catalytic power. For more information, please visit yds-pharmatech.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

About MERES

YDS Pharmatech's proprietary structure-based drug design engine, MERES (Modify-Evaluate-Reinforce-Evolve-Sampling), leverages evolutionary AI, computational biophysics, and statistical mechanics to optimize drug candidate molecular structure and improve binding affinities to targets. MERES requires only one molecule as input to create molecules with new IP values and the specified desired properties. MERES has already been used to accelerate biotech pipelines, has increased PROTAC candidate binding by 100-fold, discovered the world's first alphavirus inhibitor, and generated new IP for an allosteric kinase inhibitor.

Contact YDS Pharmatech

Name: Xing Che

Email: xche@yds-pharmatech.com

SOURCE YDS Pharmatech

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