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News about coronavirus in Florida and around the world is constantly emerging. It's hard to stay on top of it all but Health News Florida can help. Our responsibility is to keep you informed, and to help discern what’s important for your family as you make what could be life-saving decisions.

Florida Researchers Find Possible COVID-19 Drug Strategy

Red and gray 3D model of COVID-19. Looks like a sphere with red trees on it.
CDC
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Palm Beach County say they have found a possible way for drugs to treat COVID-19.

Led by Matthew Disney, a chemistry professor at Scripps' Jupiter campus, the researchers did this by offering a map for how to complicate the coronavirus' ability to replicate, the Palm Beach Postreports.

Their findingsfrom the proof-of-concept study were published Wednesday inACS Central Science, an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal.

The study focused on a site within the coronavirus, called its frameshifting element, that is critical in how the virus replicates itself using RNA genetic material after infecting a cell. The element functions like a clutch in a car, enabling the production of different proteins that help the coronavirus make copies of itself, according to Scripps.