Ma Che, a researcher at the Genome Research Center of Academia Sinica, cooperated with Zhan Jiayuan, a research technician, and confirmed that protein FRIL extracted from white lentils can capture sugar molecules on the surface of COVID-19, thus inhibiting virus infection and blocking its spread, providing a new research and development direction for anti-epidemic. The research paper was published in Cell Report on July 24th.
Protein extracted from "white lentils" can effectively inhibit the virus.
Cong has been looking for scientific methods to solve infectious diseases in Chinese herbal medicine for many years. Through experiments, he found that "white lentils" mentioned in Compendium of Materia Medica can effectively inhibit influenza virus, and its effect far exceeds that of more than 400 other traditional Chinese medicines, which is equivalent to ordinary western medicines, and he found that the key is protein FRIL.
Zhan Jiayuan said that the structure of FRIL extracted from white lentils is like a very small wave-absorbing block (about 7 nm cubic meters), with four identical endpoints protruding outward, which will combine with sugar molecules, so a FRIL can catch multiple sugar molecules around it at the same time. Since the spinoprotein on the surface of coronavirus is covered with sugar molecules just like the surface of influenza virus, the research team began to expand the influenza research to COVID-19 immediately after this year's outbreak.
Like the golden bell jar, the infection rate of FRIL cells was greatly reduced after the iron cloth shirt was added.
In previous influenza experiments, the research team found that in ordinary cells, influenza virus can directly drive the nucleus, leading to infection and cell necrosis after a few hours. However, in the cells added with FRIL, the nucleus is like a golden bell and iron cloth shirt, and the influenza virus cannot enter, and the infection rate obviously drops below 10%; In the cell experiment in COVID-19, the research team also found that COVID-19 could not enter the cell membrane of cells treated with FRIL, effectively inhibiting the infection below 5%.
A very small amount of FRIL can infect the virus, which is still the foundation. In April this year, after obtaining the virus strain (HCOV-19/Taiwan/NTU04/2020) provided by the Department of Disease Control and Prevention of Taiwan Province Provincial University, the research team began to test the inhibitory ability of FRIL on COVID-19. It was found that novel coronavirus infected cells could be inhibited by using a very small amount of FRIL, and even giving FRIL after infection had a significant effect. However, Machel stressed that the current achievements are still basic research, and there is still a long way to go to further transform research into medical supplies for treatment or prevention.
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