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M U T

S P I R I T

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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0

MUT researchers take on

COVID-19

MUT research contributes to search for COVID-19 vaccine

Mangosuthu University of Technology researchers have published a peer-reviewed

research paper on the feasibility of potential drugs against the coronavirus. Dr Devashan

Naidoo, Dr Taurai Mutanda and Professor Akash Anandraj, all from the Department

of Nature Conservation’s Centre for Algal Biotechnology (CAB), collaborated with

their counterpart at the University of North Bengal in India to conduct a three-month

computational study on COVID-19.

Dr Naidoo, the principal investigator, said: “We

wanted to determine the feasibility of cyanobacterial

metabolites as potential drugs against the virus. For

a drug to be effective, it is required that it binds to the

virus at functional sites.”

“We found that several compounds were able to bind

to the proteins with relative potency. However, for a

drug to be effective it needs to also be safe and non-

toxic,” said Dr Naidoo. The research team evaluated

the toxicity of each of the compounds and found that

one in particular, deoxycylindrospermopsin, was the

safest. The safety and stability that the compound

displayed are the hallmarks of a potential drug.

In terms of how South Africans will benefit from the

research, Dr Naidoo said the compounds evaluated in

the study are proposed as candidate lead drugs that

require further evaluation

in vitro

and

in vivo

. “Since

we predicted that these compounds have the ability

to bind to functional components of the viral genome,

they could potentially inhibit the processes that lead

to viral replication,” said Dr Naidoo. He added that it

would give the host the ability to effectively control

the spread of the virus within the body. He said this

research could pave the way for the development of

effective therapeutics in the fight against COVID-19 in

South Africa as well as globally.

However, Dr Naidoo admitted that researchers were

still far from developing an effective treatment or

vaccine for the virus, although great strides have been

made in this regard. There are some 145 vaccines

Dr Devashan Naidoo

that are currently undergoing clinical trials globally

and several drugs that are currently being evaluated.

“However, the processes are complex and require a

lot of time and effort. For instance, the compounds

that we propose require further evaluation under

laboratory conditions as well as clinical trials prior to

approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This process could take months,” he said.

Dr Naidoo said the research was done over a period

of three months during South Africa’s lockdown. The

title of the paper is “Cyanobacterial metabolites as

promising drug leads against the M

pro

and PL

pro

of

SARS-CoV-2: an

in silico

analysis”.