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In a large-scale study, scientists have 21 pre-existing drugs that may have a delaying effect on the Covid-19 virus. The results presented in Nature, are promising according to experts.
The design of the study was pending a vaccine against the coronavirus to find out which existing medicines can still help in the fight against the coronavirus. After all, the advantage of existing medicines is that in many cases they have already been found safe, which makes them immediately usable. The researchers analyzed more than 12,000 drugs, the world’s largest collection of known drugs.
The results of laboratory tests on human lungs showed that 21 drugs can prevent the Covid-19 virus from multiplying further. It was also tested whether some drugs could improve the effectiveness of remdesivir, a drug developed for Ebola but found to be more effective against corona. And with success: four drugs were found to have a positive effect on the effect of remdesivir.
Outliers
Of the 21 effective drugs, 13 have been clinically tested before and can therefore be safely administered to corona patients. In fact, the antihistamine astemizole and clofazamine (used to treat leprosy) have already been officially approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“The study extends the potential options for corona patients significantly,” said researcher Sumit Chanda. In addition, a number of drugs seem to be extra valuable. Clofazamine, Hanfangchin A, Apilimod (originally developed for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, ed.) in ONO 5334 (a means that is used for brittle bones and rapid bone loss, ed.) are, according to Chanda, “the best short-term options for effective treatment of Covid-19”.
“Promising”
The results are also very promising to other external experts. Moreover, they find the study to be so large-scale impressive. However, Virologist Ian Jones of the University of Reading also has a side note: “The disadvantage of the said drugs is that they have to be administered as early as possible to stop the damage caused by the virus.”
That means that the effectiveness of the drugs may drop sharply if the virus has already infected the lungs. The ideal scenario, according to Jones, is that people are tested on a large scale at the same time, so that everyone can be treated as quickly as possible and the chance of contamination of others is significantly reduced.
Past breakthroughs
The 21 potential corona drugs have yet to be extensively tested in animals and simulated human tissues. If those results are positive, the FDA is approached to organize clinical trials and obtain approval as a treatment for Covid-19. Either way, the search for new drugs continues, as it is important to have many options when the virus becomes resistant to one or more drugs.
Two other existing drugs, remdisivir and dexamethasone, have previously been shown to be effective against coronavirus. Dexamethasone is an old, over-the-counter and inexpensive steroid that reduces the mortality of Covid-19. Remdesivir is an agent that accelerates recovery after corona infection by 31% and may also increase survival rates.
Decided at the beginning of this month president Trump buy the almost complete stock of remdivivir for three months, although it is not a miracle cure. After all, the drug does not work for everyone who receives it. Thus, the four drugs that proved to improve the efficacy of remdivivir in the new study are also welcome.-
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