"The outbreak of SARS in 2003 led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of illnesses, and there is currently no treatment," said Purdue University Professor Arun Ghosh who led the molecular design team. "Although it is not currently a threat, there is the concern that SARS could return or be used as a biological weapon. It is important to develop a treatment as a safeguard."

In addition to its ability to block the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus, Ghosh said the molecular compound that inhibits the virus provides new insights into a group of proteins found in a range of diseases, such as childhood croup, herpes and cancer.

The research that included Andrew Mesecar, Kiira Ratia, Scott Pegan, Wentao Fu, Michael Johnson, Melissa Coughlin and Bellur Prabhakar of the University of Illinois; Jun Takayama from Purdue University; and Katrina Sleeman and Srendranath Baliji from Loyola University appears in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.