Source: Oneness Biotech

SNS812 is a siRNA new drug targeting a highly conserved region of SARS-CoV-2. Unlike traditional antiviral agents, such as nucleoside analog (eg. molnupiravir) or proteinase inhibitor (eg. paxlovid) which inhibits the virus by interrupting replication or interfering protein maturation, SNS812 directly and specifically cleaves and destroys the viral RNA by a special mechanism called RNA interference. The analysis indicates that SNS812 is capable to cover 99.8% of SARS-CoV-2 variants and has the highest coverage rate among all currently available medicines. SNS812 can inhibit original(A.3), Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Epsilon and Delta strains with pM range of IC50 in vitro, and effectively prevent or treat SARS-CoV-2 infection in hACE2 transgenic mice. Furthermore, SNS812 is highly specific to the virus, which represents non-immunogenicity and safety in animal toxicity studies and thus potentially reduce treatment risk and side effects compared with other small-molecule drugs.

The research article has been accepted by EMBO Molecular Medicine and published on 2022/02/21.

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(1) European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional organization with strong influence to promote research in life science and enable international communication between scientists. EMBO has been well-known for its rigorous review and high quality of publication. EMBO Molecular Medicine has the highest impact factor (IF: 12.137) among EMBO series of journals. Moreover, EMBO Molecular Medicine is ranked the 7th of 140 journals in the category of Medicine, Research and Experimental and top 5% of all journals. The article of SNS812 can be accessed: https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/emmm.202115298

(2) The publication of the study results of SNS812 in EMBO Molecular Medicine represents the acknowledgement by the top international journal not only on the research and development of siRNA drug, but also on the scientific evidence and therapeutic potential of SNS812 for the treatment of COVID-19.

(3) The trend of SARS-CoV-2 infection is gradually becoming flu-like, so the development of therapeutic drugs is critically needed. SNS812 is a broad-spectrum siRNA with both therapeutic and preventive efficacy against a wide range of variants of SARS-CoV-2. The goal is to develop a pan-COVID-19 therapeutic for the pandemic.

(4) SNS812 is currently under cGMP production with the CMO followed by toxicology studies with the CRO. It has been planned to submit the IND application to the US FDA in the middle of 2022.

(5) The development of new drugs is with great risks. The promising data in animal　studies do not guarantee the clinical success.