STOP-COV, the research task force against SARS-CoV-2

The STOP-COV project was born from an interdisciplinary collaboration between AXXAM SpA, UniMI ("Luigi Sacco" Hospital) and Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, to counter the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic emergency and, consequently, the clinical syndrome defined Covid-19, through the identification of pharmacological inhibitors of the processes of virus penetration into target cells.

This collaboration will also allow fine-tuning innovative research platforms developed thanks to the increased knowledge of the biology of SARS-CoV-2, and, as a consequence, to contribute to the discovery of powerful and specific drugs for the management of new epidemics caused by coronavirus and from other viruses with similar characteristics of spread.

The task of the work package coordinated by UniSR will be to define the antiviral activity of "lead compound", lead molecules from which to derive other more powerful and specific ones, which have passed a first screening in the biochemical tests conducted by AXXAM on the interaction with the regions of the virus needed to allow infection.

"These molecules will be tested in San Raffaele University for their ability to directly interfere with viral replication thanks to a quantitative assay (based on the formation of plaques in semi-solid medium) developed and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal by our UniSR/OSR group"

declares Prof. Guido Poli, immunologist-virologist, Full Professor of General Pathology, contact person for the Project in San Raffaele University.