'Atomic snapshots' of proofreading enzyme could lead to better COVID-19 drugs

The closest-ever detailed look at a key enzyme inside the virus that causes COVID-19 could lead to more effective treatment of the disease. Nucleotide analogs are a common type of antiviral medication that mimic the genetic material viruses use to replicate, essentially duping them into inserting faulty building blocks into new copies of the virus. Many nucleotide analogs don't work as well as expected against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, because coronaviruses carry an enzyme that identifies and removes genetic errors in its RNA—a "proofreader" called exoribonuclease (ExoN).