From COVID-19 to the common cold: UBC scientists identify broadly effective, infection-halting compound

Cells treated with the compound ( right ) showed reduced infection from the Omicron variant compared to untreated cells ( left ). Photo credit: Dr. Selvarani Vimalanathan, Molecular Biomedicine Science, Health & Technology Brett Goldhawk Researchers at UBC's Life Sciences Institute have identified a compound that shows early promise at halting infections from a range of coronaviruses, including all variants of SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold. The findings, published this week in Molecular Biomedicine , reveal a potential path toward antiviral treatments that could be used against many different pathogens. "Beyond COVID-19, there are many different types of coronaviruses that can cause serious and sometimes fatal disease, and even more are likely to emerge in the future," says Dr. Yossef Av-Gay , an infectious disease professor in UBC's faculty of medicine and the study's senior author. "We're working toward treatments that can be broadly effective against all types of coronaviruses so that we can respond to not only current health challenges, but also future pandemic threats. Identifying this compound and the pathway by which it works to stop viruses is an important step in that direction." Targeting the host, not the virus . The researchers credit the compound's broad effectiveness to the unique way it works.