The Infectious Disease Research Group at the University of Sharjah

The Infectious Disease research group, led by Dr. Sameh Soliman and his Postdoc Rania Hamdy, examined the underlying structural characteristics and virulence factor of SARS-CoV-2 infections to design and develop a potential therapeutic strategy against SARS-CoV-2 infection. A one million AED granted to the team by Sandooq Al-Watan to support their idea. The study results in two patents and several publications, in addition to Sharjah Islamic Bank Award for the best student research article, poster/ oral presentation during Sharjah Innovation Week, DUPHAT international conference, and ASM international conference, second place award during the ESCM for professional poster presentation, and the fourth annual scientific research forum. The findings revealed the design of two compounds that exhibit superior in vitro antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 with a high selectivity index and robust inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV-2. Both compounds showed dual inhibition activity by targeting the viral invasion that requires activation by S-protein cleavage with the host protease (TMPRSS2) enzyme, and viral replication that requires RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) enzyme. Moreover, the basic nature of the designed compounds disfavor the viral replication and enhance phagocytosis mechanism. The compounds meet the drug-likeness criteria with promising physiochemical and pharmacokinetic features.

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