Combating COVID-19: The Oligonucleotide Way

By Sankha Pattanayak, Ph.D., Oligonucleotide Process Research and Development, Syngene International Ltd.

The COVID-19 pandemic is posing an unprecedented threat to public health, besides severely disrupting the global economy. Worldwide, millions have died, millions more are infected and suffering loss of life and livelihood, and still there is no immediate solution in sight. Drug repurposing has been promptly attempted as a temporary measure, resulting in moderate success. While several biopharmaceutical companies are racing to develop drugs and vaccines, it may still take months or even years for a therapeutic remedy to emerge. Consequently, social distancing and quarantining infected individuals remain the recommended strategy to arrest the spread of the contagion. With the number of cases continuing to grow, extensive availability of diagnostic testing and rapid identification, becomes critical for the success of this approach.

Synthetic oligonucleotides have emerged as an essential modality for diagnostic and potential therapeutic purposes. The significant advantages of oligonucleotide-based strategies are that they can be quickly designed based on predictable Watson-Crick hybridization and synthesized with well-developed solid-phase synthesis chemistries. For example, immediately after the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention identified severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as the cause of the new disease, the genomic sequence was made publicly available. In the absence of specific antibodies for this novel virus, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based diagnostic tests were promptly developed based on the genomic data.

This article focuses on the application of synthetic oligonucleotides in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. We will discuss the diagnostic tests to detect the infection and the role of oligonucleotides in these tests. We will also briefly touch upon potential strategies on how oligonucleotides can be used to treat infected patients, and arrest further progression of the virus.