RNAi to treat SARS-CoV-2-variant proofing the next generation of therapies.

Abstract

There is an urgent need to bring new antivirals to SARS-CoV-2 to the market. Indeed, in the last 3 months, we have seen at least two new antivirals approved, molnupiravir and paxlovid. Both are older established antivirals that show some efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. The work by Chang et al (2022) in the current issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine explores the use of short interfering RNAs to directly target SARS-CoV-2 and shows that RNAi is an effective approach to reducing, or even eliminating viral replication, depending on the experimental setting. This antiviral effect results in significant prevention of infection-related pathology in animals. The key feature of this approach, besides its simplicity as naked siRNAs, is that all current variants are covered by this treatment.