In an attempt to find treatment pathways for the new coronavirus (nCoV), a team of NIH-backed scientists has identified a set of 207 human genes whose expression differed from normal soon after being infected with nCoV and remained altered throughout the course of infection. First recognized in 2012, coronavirus has caused 11 deaths out of 17 confirmed cases, mostly in the Middle East. That alarmingly high fatality rate is prompting urgent research to find a treatment for the disease. The researchers identified certain classes of drugs, including specific kinase inhibitors and one type of glucocorticoid, that could act on some of those 207 identified genes related to nCoV. Using a kinase inhibitor on nCoV-infected cells grown in test tubes, they found that the drug inhibited the ability of the virus to replicate. Release | Abstract