New study finds coronavirus Achilles heel

According to a new paper published online by the journal Science on the 13th, a research team from the Swiss University of Technology Zurich, the University of Bern, the University of Lausanne and the University of Cork from Ireland has found the cause of coronaviruses, including the new coronavirus.

Viruses need to infect cells to replicate themselves, which in turn infect other cells and further infect other individuals

In healthy cells that aren't infected with the virus, the ribosome moves along the RNA "step by step", reading three RNA letters at a time

A "frameshift" in healthy cells results in dysfunctional cellular proteins

Therefore, since "frameshifting" is essential for viruses, any compound that inhibits "frameshifting" by targeting RNA folding could potentially serve as a drug to treat infections

Through complex biochemical experiments, the researchers managed to capture ribosomes at the "frameshift" site of the 2019-nCoV RNA genome

Previous studies have reported that fluoroquinolones can inhibit the "frameshift" efficiency of 2019-nCoV and other coronaviruses