Each of us can help find a cure for COVID-19: for this you need to play a game

Everyone can take an active part in saving the planet from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, without even leaving your home, which is especially convenient in quarantine. Writes about this with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

To do this, you don’t have to be a chemist or a doctor—you don’t have to have any education at all. Moreover, you don’t even have to be an adult.

To help scientists find effective drugs for coronavirus, all you need is a computer and a little free time. Even constant access to the Internet is not necessary - you can play offline.

All right, play. Scientific research can be carried out by solving spatial problems, most of which even a high school student can easily cope with. However, all this hides serious science.

The key to the virus

Game called fold.it developed at the Game Science Center in Seattle (Washington) as a joint project of five leading American universities, the main of which is the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington.

At first, the platform was created to combat other diseases - primarily HIV and various types of cancer. But now she is completely dedicated to finding cures for COVID-19.

On the subject: Coronavirus hardly transmits across surfaces: important evidence from new studies

At first glance, the game is a little reminiscent of a virtual 3D construction set - except with slightly unusually shaped parts. Some look like tree branches, others like spiral-twisted pasta or corn sticks.

This designer looks like someone was assembling it by connecting parts in a long chain. But somehow he gathered it wrong, as if in a hurry, and also outlined the places where you can do better.

This is the player’s task - to improve the design by rotating the fragments relative to each other in order to achieve the optimal shape.

In fact, the constructor is a protein molecule. Only the protein is not real - a chain generated by a computer from a standard set of amino acids using the method of random numbers.

In general, there are only 20 amino acids that make up proteins - it would seem not so much. But just as an infinite number of texts have been created from the letters of the alphabet, it is theoretically possible to assemble an infinite number of proteins from two dozen amino acids, stringing them in any order. There are a lot of options.

Each link has its own set of chemical properties, they all interact, and thanks to this, a long chain is folded into a ball. But not arbitrarily, but always the same.

The architecture of each protein is unique and inimitable. And it is she who determines its properties, since it allows it to adhere to a receptor that fits in shape.

Simply put, proteins are a set of keys, each of which opens its own lock. For example, insulin opens a cell for glucose to enter.

What does coronavirus have to do with it

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is a dangerous adventurer that has actually picked up the key to our cells.

Like other coronaviruses, it is covered with a protective shell dotted with pointed processes. And at the end of each spike there is a protein molecule that serves as its master key.

The fact is that on the surface of our cells there is an ACE2 receptor, designed for a protein very similar in shape. Therefore, when a virus enters the “lock” with a spike, the cell membrane takes it as one of its own and lets it inside.

On the subject: Research: coronavirus mutated into dozens of different strains

To prevent infection or stop the development of the disease, it is necessary to find a protein that would tie the virus’s hands - that is, block the pointed processes, preventing it from entering the cell. All that is needed for this is to choose a molecule of the right shape.

It doesn’t sound too complicated, but in fact it’s not an easy task even for supercomputers. It is almost impossible to accurately predict how a sequence of hundreds and thousands of amino acids will collapse, where each link affects the others.

And here ordinary people come to the rescue, players in Fold.it. Having fun with the virtual 3D designer, they sort through millions of possible combinations.

Since in all known proteins the amino acids are packed in space as compactly as possible, the number of points scored depends on how dense the hand-made ball is.

The player himself may not know anything at all about proteins - it is enough to just explain some of the patterns to him in general terms. For example, that orange fragments will most likely be hidden in the center of the ball, while green fragments will be located closer to the surface.

It has been experimentally proven that our brain solves spatial problems no worse, and often even better than artificial intelligence - thanks to intuition and accumulated experience. Moreover, experienced gamers make more accurate predictions and cope with laying the chain better than specialized scientists.

In the meantime, the game continues, the first hundred of the most successful options created in it are already being tested at the University of Washington. Perhaps one of them will help protect our cells from the impostor virus.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Coronavirus hardly transmits across surfaces: important evidence from new studies

How Quarantine Affected New Yorkers: The Stories of Our Immigrants

Scientists: because of the pandemic, the number of hungry people in the world may double

Research: coronavirus mutated into dozens of different strains

Robots connected to fight against coronavirus in the USA

Study: Pet Owners Easier Tolerate COVID-19

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.