CK2COV

In 2020, the global phosphorylation landscape of SARS-CoV-2 infection was revealed, showing that phosphorylation signalling represents a primary host response to viral infection. 

In this study, casein kinase II (CK2) appeared to be involved in SARS-CoV-2 lifecycle, suggesting that targeting CK2 should be an interesting strategy to impair SARS-COV-2 lifecycle. We have recently developed a series of highly selective CK2 inhibitors. Here, we propose to optimise our CK2 inhibitors in order to generate chemobiological tools to further investigate CK2 role. We will identify the viral partner(s) involved in CK2-dependent regulation of SARS-CoV-2 lifecycle and reveal the CK2-dependent subcellular distribution of SARS-CoV-2 protein(s). Our objective is also to develop CK2 inhibitors exhibiting broad-spectrum antiviral activity against other human coronaviruses (HCoV-229E, OC43, NL63 and HKU1).