Flu medication as a “game changer” against corona? • HealthNews

Research into a vaccine continues. While some pharmaceutical companies are focusing on developing an intravenous substance that creates long-lasting immunity, a US research team pursued a different strategy: an antiviral drug that should completely prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within 24 hours. Now the team reports first successes.

Drug gives hope

A working group at the Georgia State University in Atlanta under the direction of Dr. Richard Plemper had been on an antiviral drug for a long time against influenza worked. In the course of the corona pandemic, the team re-modeled their goal and aimed at SARS-CoV-2 – with success. In treated ferrets, no more infectious coronaviruses were detectable in the throat of the animals as early as 24 hours after the drug was administered, and there was no transmission to conspecifics either. The oral drug MK-4482 / EIDD-2801, also known as molnupiravir, could be a “game changer” in the pandemic, according to Plemper. The interruption of local chains of infection is particularly important for the pandemic.

Virus load reduced to almost zero

Molnupiravir could not only prevent the spread of the virus through infection, but also mitigate severe gradients and shorten the infection phase. This would also have an impact on the quarantine time, which could possibly be reduced as a result. The drug has broad-spectrum activity against respiratory RNA viruses, which “lowers the amount of virus particles excreted by several orders of magnitude” and thus drastically reduces transmission, according to the head of research. The way it works is as follows: MK-4482 / EIDD-2801 builds mutations into the RNA of the virus and kills it. Viruses can multiply with it inhibited quickly and effectively will.

Good results in the animal model

The drug has already been successfully tested on ferrets. The rodents therefore stop relevant transfer model because they are susceptible to the coronavirus and also spread it, i.e. infect others – similar to what is the case with humans.
The researchers infected some animals and administered half of them an oral dose of MK-4482 / EIDD-2801 twice a day after twelve hours. Then they put healthy animals in the cage to test the transmission. With a clear result: the roommates of the treated animals remained healthy, while all animals in the control group became infected. The researchers also analyzed all of the experiments at regular intervals the viral load in the throat the animals. 24 hours after starting treatment, they could no longer detect any infectious particles in the smear.

Phase II study follows

Of course, further research has yet to show whether molnupiravir works as effectively in humans. Corresponding phase II / III studies with COVID-19 patients are currently taking place, where safety and tolerability are the main focus. If hopes are confirmed, patients could become non-infectious as soon as 24 to 48 hours after taking molnupiravir. Among other things, this could result in shorter quarantine times, which the Relieve the psyche enormously could.

In this video, Dr. Weigl, why you shouldn’t underestimate influenza:

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