Singapore, April 10 -- Taiwan's Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan announced on 10 April 2020 that it has screened out protease inhibitors of the COVID-19 coronavirus, which could eventually lead to the development of targeted drugs to stop the virus from replicating itself in patients' bodies.

Proteases, a group of enzymes that break down proteins, act as catalysts in a range of biological processes, and in the context of a virus, are often essential for the completion of the viral infectious cycle.

Protease inhibitors, which can be naturally-occurring or synthetic, block the replication of the virus, and are commonly used in the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus.

In a press release, the government r...