RNA interference as a new approach for the treatment of COVID-19

A research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has successfully used specific enzymes to destroy the genetic information of SARS-CoV-2 directly after the virus penetrates the cell. The findings could serve as the basis for a therapy to treat COVID-19. Our genome contains building instructions for proteins and other molecules. In order for these to be produced by the cell, a kind of transcript of these building instructions must first be created, which takes the form of so-called RNA molecules. The transcript is recognized and implemented by the cells. “However, there is also a mechanism that can very specifically destroy this RNA, which takes place in all human cells as part of gene regulation,” explains Dr. Thomas Michler, who led the current study at the Institute of Virology of TUM and Helmholtz Zentrum München. “It is the so-called RNA interference.” In this process, short pieces of RNA are formed in...