Anixa Biosciences' COVID-19 Compounds Show Potential Efficacy Against Delta Variant

Anixa Biosciences Inc ANIX has announced that a genomic variant analysis indicates that its potential compounds may be more effective against the Delta variant than the original wild-type SARS-CoV-2.
Anixa's program, in collaboration with European partner MolGenie, focuses on identifying novel, small molecule inhibitors of Mpro, the main protease of the virus.
The current compounds that Anixa is synthesizing and evaluating have demonstrated their ability to inhibit the function of this protein, which the virus needs to replicate.
Sequence analysis of several Delta variant samples demonstrates that the Mpro enzyme often has a mutation that replaces an asparagine (an amino acid) with leucine (another amino acid) near the binding site.
This change makes the binding pocket of Mpro more hydrophobic, thus suggesting Anixa's compounds will be more potent inhibitors of the variant Mpro than the wild-type (original).
Price Action: ANIX shares are up 9.45% at $4.98 during the market session on the last check Wednesday.
Photo by Arek Socha from Pixabay