the SARS-CoV-2 virus & possible targets for Therapeutics -- Foldig@Home helps solve mystery
 
Capturing the COVID-19 Demogorgon (aka spike) in action
April 3, 2020
 
(excerpt)
 
The spike of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (shown below) is one particularly appealing target for designing therapeutics to combat the COVID-19 disease. It is actually comprised of three identical proteins arranged in a circle. Many copies of the spike protrude from the surface of the virus, where they wait to encounter a protein on the surface of many human cells, called ACE2. Binding of a spike to ACE2 initiates a series of events that ultimately allow the virus to enter the human cell. Therefore, therapeutics that bind the spike in a manner that blocks its interaction with ACE2 could provide a valuable means to prevent infection.

 
More interesting Information found:


     Twitter Dr Greg Bowman
 
     https://foldingathome.org/author/gbowman/
 

My dad (who is much more knowledgeable about science than me) has been talking about this "spike" for weeks. I'm experienced with understanding of ACE proteins as they played a big part in some clinical cancer trials. This is awesome that people are learning so fast with the help of all these machines. Thanks for sharing!

Knowledge gained through protein simulations performed on the greatest distributed computer platform in the world ... US!!! 

Edit: gonna put “Rachel” to the task - see how she does 👍

i'm going to help out and join folding

9rince
I dont even think the coronavirus is real.  Has anyone in the forums seen someone with coronavirus?  I think all of this on tv is exaggerated or one giant lie.  I dont watch tv btw.  The govt. is stock piling toilet paper in some govt. warehouse like from movie Indiana Jones.
 
Im not a tin foil hat person but the coronavirus is being used to cover up something.  Just laugh at me.  If you are in military or govt. this should be like one giant field problem in civilian world with the "coronavirus".  I dont trust the news one bit.  I get picked on all the time by the news.

Really?  If you dont believe it then go to a hospital in a city or area that is thriving with the virus.  But I would highly recommend wearing swim or ski goggles and a mask that seals your nose and mouth.  Not one of those loose ones that pulls air from the sides of the mask as air will travel the path of least resistance.  Or you can youtube hart island and see the mass grave for NY coronavirus victims.  Either way there is no cover up except for the delayed response to close the borders from this pandemic as there were many that knew there would be a coronavirus pandemic sooner or later.  One example is Conan O'Brien's father: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T04ddtW9Kd4
I studied at Rutgers University in the environmental sciences and I was educated specifically on what to expect from a coronavirus pandemic that was likely to come some day, and this was about 8 years ago.
 

If "all of this crap on tv is exaggerated and made up" and your conversation with various governments "makes the news for the topics or headlines," then you are declaring your own conversations as being exaggerated and made up since they make the news which is exaggerated and made up.

This thread is actually informative, and most people care about themselves and others,
so come on guys, don't ruin it with a bunch of nonsense. 

Chaos_21
This thread is actually informative, and most people care about themselves and others,
so come on guys, don't ruin it with a bunch of nonsense. 

I agree, however I am skeptical that the current effort that folding provides will be fruitful to fighting COVID-19 as it wont be around much longer to the degree we are currently experiencing, and relatively non-existent by the end of the year.  But it will arise again many years in the future as a mutated form that a COVID-19 vaccine will not work for and although the therapeutics may or may not work to some degree, the shut downs and overall scene we are experiencing will still occur unless proper preventative measures are quickly implemented and widely practiced.  Then if that fails there needs to be better availability of protective gear made available to everyone.  The best strategy I can think of would be to use folding to possibly find the various mutations this virus can achieve and acquire theoretical or actual vaccines and therapeutics for every one of those mutations to be capable of a much faster solution the moment a new mutation of coronavirus is captured and determined to be on the rise.
 
*Edit* If not the coronavirus, then some other virus will become a threat inevitably sometime in the future.  Better to have excellent pandemic response than anything else.

Hoggle

boylerya

Chaos_21
This thread is actually informative, and most people care about themselves and others,
so come on guys, don't ruin it with a bunch of nonsense. 

I agree, however I am skeptical that the current effort that folding provides will be fruitful to fighting COVID-19 as it wont be around much longer to the degree we are currently experiencing, and relatively non-existent by the end of the year.  But it will arise again many years in the future as a mutated form that a COVID-19 vaccine will not work for and although the therapeutics may or may not work to some degree, the shut downs and overall scene we are experiencing will still occur unless proper preventative measures are quickly implemented and widely practiced.  Then if that fails there needs to be better availability of protective gear made available to everyone.  The best strategy I can think of would be to use folding to possibly find the various mutations this virus can achieve and acquire theoretical or actual vaccines and therapeutics for every one of those mutations to be capable of a much faster solution the moment a new mutation of coronavirus is captured and determined to be on the rise.
 
*Edit* If not the coronavirus, then some other virus will become a threat inevitably sometime in the future.  Better to have excellent pandemic response than anything else.

The virus has shown to handle heat pretty well so it's unlikely to go away in the summer months. As for the vaccine for Covid-19 we already have heard of people having a second case of Covid-19 to a lesser degree. If that is the case we could be looking at something that our bodies are not building up a lasting immunity to.

Yes, and those that have a second case take twice as long as their first case to show symptoms.  However my supportive information would result in yet another locked thread.  If there were a way to secure a bet for an RTX2080Ti for what I've said I would take it in a heart beat tho.  We will have to wait and see.  But WA state is a good example of a state that has passed the worst of it.

boylerya
 
The virus has shown to handle heat pretty well so it's unlikely to go away in the summer months. As for the vaccine for Covid-19 we already have heard of people having a second case of Covid-19 to a lesser degree. If that is the case we could be looking at something that our bodies are not building up a lasting immunity to.

Yes, and those that have a second case take twice as long as their first case to show symptoms.  However my supportive information would result in yet another locked thread.  If there were a way to secure a bet for an RTX2080Ti for what I've said I would take it in a heart beat tho.  We will have to wait and see.  But WA state is a good example of a state that has passed the worst of it


Throw in the bird flu also.
I’ll say it. If the Chinese government doesn’t deal with the places where these things originate, once and for all, And stop kowtowing to the wealthy, then history will repeat itself over and over. Each time with a more robust virus. The vast majority of the Chinese people are against these markets anyway.
Thanks boylerya, for your educated and informative posts.

New Simulations to Search for COVID-19 Treatment via Repurposing Existing NTP Analog Drugs that Target Viral RNA Replication
April 13, 2020
by Xuhui Huang
 
(excerpt)
 
The Huang lab from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has released a series of Folding@Home projects to simulate the nsp12 and nsp14 complex.  We will screen existing FDA-approved NTP analog drugs. We aim to repurpose drugs that can inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication.