The search for specific and effective chemotherapeutics for the treatment of the novel coronavirus-induced diseases is necessary and pressing in the context of the present pandemic event and in light of future dangerous outbreaks. 

The manlty aims of this project are:

- to identify new peptidomimetic compounds to be used as springboard towards the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs;

- To explore the anti-SARS-CoV-2 potential of a recently launched chiral ring system based on the uracil scaffold fused to carbocycle rings. 

Our strategy is based on recent findings on the structural and functional features of the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and human host at the molecular level, which suggest that blocking such interaction with exogenous molecules would impede (or highly impair) viral entry, thus halting the virus infection at very early stages. In particular, selective inhibition of two key players namely, the viral spike glycoprotein SP and the human ACE2 receptor, would incapacitate virus binding and invasion. 

Main publications about this subject:

1. Marcantonio E., Guazzetti D., Coppa C., Battistini L., Sartori A., Bugatti K., Provinciael B., Curti C., Contini A., Vermeire K., Zanardi F. The chiral 5,6-cyclohexane-fused uracil ring-system: A molecular platform with promising activity against SARS-CoV-2, Eur. J. Med.Chem. 2025, 286, 117302, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2025.117302 

2. Bugatti K., Sartori A., Battistini L., Coppa C., Vanhulle E., Noppen S., Provinciael B., Naesens L., Stevaert A.,  Contini A., Vermeire K., Zanardi F. Novel Polymyxin-Inspired Peptidomimetics Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Spike:hACE2 Interface, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(10), 8765; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24108765