For treatment and prevention
COVID-19 pills reduce viral load by 96 in 48 hours%
Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+
The new drug is effective for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, scientists from University of North Carolina. It quickly blocks the replication of the virus in the body and the earlier treatment is started, the faster it is possible to cope with it. The wide spectrum of action of the drug, which is planned to be released in tablets, has the potential to prevent future outbreaks of coronaviruses. It is already being tested in the second and third phases of clinical trials.
Article by Wahl et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection is effectively treated and prevented by EIDD-2801 accepted for publication in the journal Nature – VM.
The first experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug EIDD-2801 were launched last year. Then scientists demonstrated its effectiveness against SARS and MERS — related SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses, which also caused epidemics in 2003 and 2012. New experiments have shown that EIDD-2801 is extremely effective for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
The results of preclinical tests were obtained on an immunodeficient line of mice implanted with human lung tissue (this was necessary because human coronaviruses do not replicate in mice). Lung tissue was infected with SARS-CoV-2, after which scientists began to observe how quickly EIDD-2801 would suppress the reproduction of the virus in the body.
First, EIDD-2801 was administered a day or 48 hours after exposure to SARS-CoV-2, repeating treatment every 12 hours.
Just two days later, scientists recorded a sharp and more than 25,000-fold decrease in the number of viral particles in lung tissue, if treatment was started a day later. When treatment was started after 48 hours, the viral load was reduced by 96%.
Then the scientists decided to test the preventive potential of EIDD-2801 and injected it 12 hours before infection and then every 12 hours. In this case, the drug significantly inhibited the replication of the virus, reducing the viral load by more than 100 thousand times. These results were obtained in two independent experiments.
"In general, our results show that EIDD-2801 can be effective not only in the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, but also prove to be a highly effective remedy against future outbreaks of coronaviruses," concluded co-author Ralph Barik.
Currently, EIDD-2801 is already being tested in the second and third phases of clinical trials, which should prove the safety and effectiveness of the drug for humans. If successful, the medicine is planned to be released in tablets.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru