- Respiratory disease drug identified as
potential COVID-19 therapeutics
- AI-driven drug repositioning allowed a
rapid search for COVID-19 drug candidates
- Exploring partners for clinical
development
Syntekabio (KOSDAQ: 226330), An AI and NGS
based drug development company, announced that they used their proprietary AI
platform DeepMatcherTM to screen 3,000 approved drugs and identified potential
COVID-19 therapeutics. The company applied for a patent for its usage.
Crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2’s 3CL
protease (Mpro), the main viral protease which plays key roles in viral gene
expression and proliferation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was first published in
the Protein Data Bank (PDB)[1] on February 5th. As soon as this structural
information became available, Syntekabio commenced AI screening using
DeepMatcherTM and supercomputer. The screening initially found 30 repositioning
candidates, with many showing effective inhibition of COVID-19-induced cellular
pathology when tested on SARS-CoV-2 infected monkey kidney cells. This in vitro
assay was a collaborative work with one of the South Korean national research
institutes, where the BSL-3 facility was established. Syntekabio decided to
focus on one of the candidates as it showed an anti-COVID-19 effect that was as
robust as remdesivir.
Besides its potency, the final candidate is
anticipated to have multiple other benefits. The final candidate was originally
approved to treat respiratory diseases. Besides the potency, it is anticipated
to have multiple additional benefits over remdesivir: ▲ it is expected to have
a preventive effect against COVID-19 for those respiratory disease patients who
are already on this drug, ▲ it is likely to be safer as it has long-term safety
data, and ▲ administration is more convenient given that it is an oral drug.
Sunil Youn, MD, Director of Business
Development of Syntekabio, said, “Our AI solution and supercomputer allowed us
to identify experimentally validated potential COVID-19 drug in only six weeks
– a speed that you cannot achieve in conventional ways. We hope that by
identifying respiratory diseases drug as a candidate COVID-19 drug we can offer
differentiated solutions for those high-risk patients.”
Reference
[1]
Z. Jin et al., “Structure of Mpro from COVID-19 virus and discovery of
its inhibitors,” bioRxiv, 2020, doi: 10.1101/2020.02.26.964882.
About Syntekabio, Inc.
Syntekabio is an AI and NGS based drug development
company, utilizing genomic database and artificial intelligence to predict and
identify new molecular entities to be a relevant new drug product. It is the
global first AI drug development company listed on the public market (KOSDAQ:
226330) last December. The Company’s lead product candidate, STB-C017, an
IDO/TDO dual inhibitor for the treatment of advanced solid tumor, is under
nonclinical development. The company’s subsequent pipelines include
personalized neoantigen cancer vaccines, small molecules targeting established
oncology targets, and biomarkers to stratify relevant patients to maximize
treatment efficacy. Syntekabio’s business model is to collaborate with various
academic institutions and biopharma companies to optimize development process,
utilizing proprietary AI and NGS data. The Company is headquartered in Daejeon,
Rep. of Korea, with offices in Seoul, Rep. of Korea and Rockville, MD, USA. For
additional information, please visit webpage: http://www.syntekabio.com/
