RNAi to treat SARS‐CoV‐2—variant proofing the next generation of therapies

Abstract There is an urgent need to bring new antivirals to SARS‐CoV‐2 to the market. Indeed, in the last 3 months, we have seen at least two new antivirals approved, molnupiravir and paxlovid. Both are older established antivirals that show some efficacy against SARS‐CoV‐2. The work by Chang et al (2022) in the current issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine explores the use of short interfering RNAs to directly target SARS‐CoV‐2 and shows that RNAi is an effective approach to reducing, or even eliminating viral replication, depending on the experimental setting. This antiviral effect results in significant prevention of infection‐related pathology in animals. The key feature of this approach, besides its simplicity as naked siRNAs, is that all current variants are covered by this treatment.