by: Agencies – 5 December 2020, 06:59 pm
-Researchers claim that MK-4482 / EIDD-2801 or molnupiravir is the first orally available drug to rapidly block SARS-CoV-2 and has the potential to be innovative.
CORONAVIRUS.- Since the beginning of the pandemic, the focus of the global scientific and health research community has been to discover new treatment options or vaccines that can kill SARS-CoV-2 or reuse old drugs to treat and cure the infection without major side effects. .
In June 2020, an Oxford study had stated that the steroid drug dexamethasone can help treat severe COVID-19 patients and in November, scientists were even evaluating hepatitis C drugs for their efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. .
But despite these advances, the search for a highly effective drug that could act on SARS-CoV-2 from the very beginning of the COVID-19 infection provided limited results.
How a SARS-CoV-2 Flu Drug Works
The findings of a new study published in Nature Microbiology could be a turning point. The study, published by researchers at the Georgia State University Institute of Biomedical Sciences, reveals that a new antiviral drug has been designed that successfully suppresses the SARS-CoV-2 virus and inhibits transmission within 24 hours.
Researchers claim that MK-4482 / EIDD-2801 or molnupiravir is the first orally available drug that rapidly blocks SARS-CoV-2 and has the potential to be innovative. Molnupiravir is being developed by the biotechnology company Ridgeback Biotherapeutics in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Merck.
The researchers report in the study that they had developed an orally administrable ribonucleoside analog inhibitor that worked against influenza viruses and, witnessing its efficacy, decided to repurpose the drug for use against SARS-CoV-2. The drug, molnupiravir, is now in phase II / III clinical trials, but it has been shown to be successful against the virus in ferrets.
The scientists revealed that they chose to test the drug in ferrets rather than mice or guinea pigs because the presentation of SARS-CoV-2 in ferrets resembles that of young adult human populations. This means that ferrets are also more likely to experience asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic COVID-19 infection during which they transmit the disease to other ferrets very quickly.
This similarity gave the researchers the opportunity to estimate how administration of the drug can effectively control the spread of COVID-19. The researchers then inoculated the ferrets with SARS-CoV-2 and observed their peak viral load in the upper respiratory tract on the third day after inoculation.
The rapid effects of molnupiravir
Once the ferrets were treated with molnupiravir (given twice a day) some very promising results were found. When dosing was started within 12 hours after the viral load peaked and the spread of infection began, the infectious particle became undetectable within 24 hours after starting treatment.
When the first dose of molnupiravir was administered 36 hours after viral load peaked and shedding began, the drug was able to completely suppress the release of infectious virions within 36 hours. This not only indicates that the drug works in ferrets with SARS-CoV-2 viral infection, but also that it works faster when given as soon as possible.
It is because of these promising findings that the researchers concluded that oral administration of the drug molnupiravir may have three potential benefits:
• It can stop the progress of the infection and prevent serious illnesses and adverse outcomes.
• It can reduce the total duration of infection, which in turn can alleviate the physical, emotional, and socioeconomic cost of the disease for patients, especially during isolation.
• It can quickly control local outbreaks if administered to populations that have high transmissibility.
Therefore, while more clinical trials must be conducted before this new oral antiviral drug can be released for public use, the findings of this study provide new hope for the successful suppression of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
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