NEW YORK, March 31 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) — Aptorum Group Limited (Nasdaq: APM) (“Aptorum Group”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutics for unmet needs including but not limited to infectious, orphan and metabolic disease areas, today announced that it is initiating an additional research and development project targeting the coronavirus group and has completed initial screening under the Smart-ACT™ platform, a repurposed and new drug discovery platform, to select, out of more than 2,600 approved small drug molecules, at least 3 potential candidates for further preclinical investigation against the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19. Aptorum Group is collaborating with Toronto based Covar Pharmaceuticals and has also entered into agreement with the University of Hong Kong’s Microbiology Department to conduct further preclinical investigation of the selected candidates prior to seeking approval from regulatory agencies to initiate clinical trials on suitable candidates.
In particular, Aptorum Group will focus on investigation of at least three small molecule drugs (collectively “SACT-COV19”), that have shown potential interference against two enzyme targets, namely, 3CL-Protease and RNA dependent RNA Polymerase (“RDRP”), with both playing pivotal roles in COVID-19’s replication cycle. Specifically, 3CL-Protease is believed to mediate viral replication and transcription functions through extensive proteolytic processing, while RDRP is an enzyme that is believed to catalyze the replication of viral RNA from its RNA template. These selected candidates will undergo further preclinical assessment on efficacy against COVID-19. Aptorum Group has filed patent applications on the above candidates.
http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=37070