<story><title>We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir</title><url>https://www.acsh.org/news/2020/03/26/problem-remdesivir-making-it-14665</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kccqzy</author><text>Remdesivir is an analog of adenosine, one of the four building blocks of RNA. Just look at the main structure and you&amp;#x27;ll agree they look similar. It turns out the mechanism of action of this drug is that it&amp;#x27;s supposed to be confused with adenosine, so that the viral RNA replication process uses remdesivir instead of adenosine, which later breaks the RNA†.&lt;p&gt;Our body, or really, all biological processes can synthesize incredibly complicated molecules that can take human chemists a huge amount of effort to synthesize. It really is amazing how awesome our body is.&lt;p&gt;†: My description here is a dumbed down description. For a more precise description see section 2 of &lt;i&gt;Arguments in favour of remdesivir for treating SARS-CoV-2 infections&lt;/i&gt;, Wen-Chien Ko et al, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S0924857920300832&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S092485792...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>koboll</author><text>This is such a great description. Compare how Wikipedia describes the same process [&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Adenosine#Research&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Adenosine#Research&lt;/a&gt;]:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The adenosine analog NITD008 has been reported to directly inhibit the recombinant RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of the dengue virus by terminating its RNA chain synthesis. This interaction suppresses peak viremia and rise in cytokines and prevents lethality in infected animals, raising the possibility of a new treatment for this flavivirus.&lt;p&gt;Absolute gibberish to someone with limited knowledge of biology.</text></comment>
<story><title>We Made One Gram Of Remdesivir</title><url>https://www.acsh.org/news/2020/03/26/problem-remdesivir-making-it-14665</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>kccqzy</author><text>Remdesivir is an analog of adenosine, one of the four building blocks of RNA. Just look at the main structure and you&amp;#x27;ll agree they look similar. It turns out the mechanism of action of this drug is that it&amp;#x27;s supposed to be confused with adenosine, so that the viral RNA replication process uses remdesivir instead of adenosine, which later breaks the RNA†.&lt;p&gt;Our body, or really, all biological processes can synthesize incredibly complicated molecules that can take human chemists a huge amount of effort to synthesize. It really is amazing how awesome our body is.&lt;p&gt;†: My description here is a dumbed down description. For a more precise description see section 2 of &lt;i&gt;Arguments in favour of remdesivir for treating SARS-CoV-2 infections&lt;/i&gt;, Wen-Chien Ko et al, &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S0924857920300832&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.sciencedirect.com&amp;#x2F;science&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;pii&amp;#x2F;S092485792...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pfdietz</author><text>There has been exciting work on directed evolution of enzymes for drug synthesis, particularly for transamination (conversion of a ketone to an amine).   This is I believe being used commercially now, for example for the production of the diabetes drug sitagliptin.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blogs.sciencemag.org&amp;#x2F;pipeline&amp;#x2F;archives&amp;#x2F;2010&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;chemical_biology_engineering_enzymes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blogs.sciencemag.org&amp;#x2F;pipeline&amp;#x2F;archives&amp;#x2F;2010&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;ch...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1002&amp;#x2F;ejoc.201500852&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com&amp;#x2F;doi&amp;#x2F;10.1002...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>