# Repurposing of cancer therapeutics for treatment of patients with COVID-19 disease

> **NIH NIH U54** · INSTITUTE FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY · 2020 · $183,000

## Abstract

Project Summary
The pandemic COVID-19 has, as of April 13, 2020, infected nearly 2M individuals worldwide, with over
560,000 U.S. cases and over 22,000 U.S. deaths. There are no FDA approved vaccines or treatments
for COVID-19. This supplemental proposal describes the accelerated development of such a drug,
with potential near-term uses of these early therapeutic candidates for probing the structural-function
relationships between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the human ACE2 receptor protein. This work
builds directly from Project 2 of the NCI-supported U54 NSBCC program. The specific aims of that
project center around the technology of Protein Catalyzed Capture agents (PCCs),1 with a specific
focus on developing technologies for the high-through production of PCCs, as well as an emphasis on
drug-targeting the KRASG12D oncoprotein. A unique aspect of PCCs is that they are, by design,
developed to bind to a specific epitope on a specific protein,2 thus providing an avenue for targeting an
epitope containing a genetic mutation (relevant to oncoproteins),3 or providing an avenue for targeting
epitopes that are broadly conserved, which bears relevance to targeting strategies aimed at the SARS-
CoV-2 coronavirus. That NSBCC-funded project has proceeded well (with progress towards
KRASG12D-specific inhibitors recently attracting additional investments). Further, we have also recently
shown, using other funding, that the platform can be harnessed to selectively target antibiotic resistance
pathogens using a variant of the PCC technology termed antibody-recruiting(AR) PCCs.4 Here we
seek to combine the high-throughput aspect of PCC development that has been supported by the NCI,5
with the pathogen-targeting approach, to develop a series of precisely targeted inhibitors against
SARS-CoV-2. This work has already been moving forward for the past few weeks, and is nearing the
point where animal model work will soon be required.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10148156
- **Project number:** 3U54CA199090-06S1
- **Recipient organization:** INSTITUTE FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** James R. Heath
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $183,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2021-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10148156

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10148156, Repurposing of cancer therapeutics for treatment of patients with COVID-19 disease (3U54CA199090-06S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10148156. Licensed CC0.

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