The viruses that cause COVID-19, SARS and MERS have common mechanisms that might be promising targets for a treatment that would work against all three, plus future viruses, researchers reported on Wednesday in Science. Nearly 200 scientists from six countries studied SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV, and identified cellular processes and proteins that all three coronaviruses hijack in their victims. Then, the authors looked at data on nearly 740,000 COVID-19 patients and examined the use of drugs that work to protect these processes, asking whether patients who received them fared better - and they did, in some cases. More research is needed, the authors say, but for now, they conclude, they have "identified important molecular mechanisms and potential drug treatments that merit further ... study." —Reuters Staff Source
