AI RESEARCH
Unraveling the Mechanism of Drug Binding to SARS-CoV-2 RNA Pseudoknot with Thermodynamics-Driven Machine Learning
arXiv CS.LG
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ArXi:2604.14906v1 Announce Type: cross The SARS-CoV-2 RNA pseudoknot is a promising target for antiviral intervention, as it regulates the efficiency of $-$1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting ($-$1 PRF), a mechanism that is essential for viral protein synthesis. The pseudoknot represents a viral RNA sequence composed of helical stems that adopts two long-lived topologies, threaded and unthreaded. Ligand-induced distortion of this fold is thought to underlie the susceptibility of $-$1 PRF to small-molecule inhibitors.