Novartis and Merck Drugs Don’t Stop SARS-Related Virus in Study
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Scientists have pinpointed a protein that a new SARS-related virus uses to infect healthy cells, in a study that may lead to treatments against it.
The new coronavirus that has killed at least nine people in the past year latches to a protein called DPP4 on the surface of cells, researchers from Erasmus Medical Center and Utrecht University in the Netherlands wrote in the journal Nature today. It’s the same protein that diabetes drugs such as Merck & Co.’s Januvia and Novartis AG’s Galvus are designed to block, though they were ineffective against the new virus, the study found.