# SARS-CoV-2 polymerase inhibitor screening

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $104,001

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging global pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 is imposing a tremendous public health threat, with no
vaccines and therapeutic agents against SARS-CoV-2 currently available. This novel single-stranded
enveloped RNA virus is the seventh known human coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2 is unlike the other coronaviruses
known to cause the common cold (229E, OC43, NL63, and HKU1), but similar to the zoonotic severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus from 2002 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus from 2012.
Pneumonia and respiratory failure are the reported clinical complications of the infected by these
coronaviruses.
While vaccines and monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are in development, a number of
investigational therapies are currently being considered and tested, including repurposed clinically approved
drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2 cell entry and replication. For example, viral polymerases have been major
therapeutic targets, as seen in multiple drug discovery successes targeting various viral pathogens (e.g., HIV-
1, HCV, and HBV). In fact, the chemistry team of our Center for Drug Discovery (CDD) at Emory University (led
by Dr. R. F. Schinazi), have previously discovered several nucleoside/nucleotide viral polymerase inhibitors
including lamivudine (3TC) and emtricitabine (FTC) to treat HIV, as well as sofosbuvir to cure HCV. Building on
this successful mechanistic strategy, our current strategic approach for SARS-CoV-2 is to target its viral RNA-
dependent RNA polymerase with specific nucleoside compounds that could potentially inhibit viral replication.
In this competitive revision application, we have chosen a highly selective and chemically diverse
nucleoside/nucleotide RNA polymerase inhibitor library, which consists of 200 compounds. We have
previously established a safe toxicity profile for this set of compounds using our in vitro toxicity screening assay
that consists of a panel of key cell-lines including human primary cells. Our goal is to investigate the antiviral
efficacy of each of these compounds by employing our established in vitro SARS-CoV-2 virus culture and viral
assay system.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10134744
- **Project number:** 3R01AI141327-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Baek Kim
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $104,001
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-05-18 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10134744

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10134744, SARS-CoV-2 polymerase inhibitor screening (3R01AI141327-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10134744. Licensed CC0.

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