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June 19th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
The research team of Andrew Mesecar and Arun Ghosh, who previously created a compound that prevents replication of the virus that causes SARS, are testing compounds that could lead to potential treatments for the new MERS-CoV virus. Because of their previous research and expertise, the process will be reduced to months instead of years.
MERS coronavirus: public health preparations
“MERS-CoV and SARS are similar, yet distinctly different coronaviruses,” Mesecar said. “Our understanding of the prime targets for treatment of the SARS virus and the molecular inhibitors we have designed against it give us a good head start in finding a potential treatment for MERS-CoV.”
“While MERS-CoV appears to be more virulent than SARS, molecular scaffolds and design concepts that we developed against SARS are very beneficial and timely,” Ghosh said. “Using our expertise in structure-based design and drug development, our team has already synthesized a number of specific MERS-CoV inhibitors.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of June 17, globally there has been a total of 64 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 38 deaths, with a clear majority of both cases and deaths from Saudi Arabia.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that includes viruses that may cause a range of illnesses in humans, from the common cold to SARS and animal diseases.
MERS-CoV is not the same coronavirus that caused SARS.
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Source Article from http://www.examiner.com/article/purdue-scientists-have-a-jump-on-mers-coronavirus-treatment-going-back-to-sars
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