COVID-19 Drug-Screening and Resistance Hub
CVR CRUSH
CVR CRUSH is designed to support the following activities:
- Screening the antiviral activity of drugs and therapeutics (e.g. monoclonal antibodies) against SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
- Identifying and characterising the emergence of potential drug-resistant viral mutations following treatment with antiviral drugs
- Monitoring the global incidence of SARS-CoV-2 strains with potential drug-resistant mutations and making this information openly available.
Global control of the COVID-19 pandemic is dependent on the availability of effective therapeutics and vaccines.
The initial assessment of new anti-viral drugs and therapeutics involves testing the ability of these compounds to block growth of infectious SARS-CoV-2 in human cells.
The CVR is ideally placed to undertake these studies given the state-of-the-art high containment facilities.
At the CVR we have generated the necessary molecular reagents including virus isolates and established drug-screening assays in human lung cell lines and primary cultures.
We are also well placed to identify and characterise potential drug-resistance variants, using drug screening pipelines and technological platforms, including real-time genomic sequencing, imaging and cryo-electron microscopy.
Data on the emergence and global incidence of potential drug-resistant strains will be made available through CoV-GLUE, an open-access analytical software package.
The CVR is also developing a small rodent model for SARS-CoV-2 that could be used in pre-clinical assays.
We look forward to working in partnership with academic and industry partners to develop CVR CRUSH as a national facility. For any queries please contact cvr-crush@glasgow.ac.uk
Projects in progress
With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the CVR has initiated a project to screen known compounds for their ability to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in a human cell background.
This project is in partnership with the University of Dundee Drug Discovery Unit.
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