Covid-19 treatment drug undergoes tests
An experimental drug hoped to benefit Covid-19 infected patients across the globe is being tested in the Waikato.
The drug hopes to prevent or reduce lung damage caused through the use of medical ventilators.
With over 10.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide the number of patients hooked up to medical ventilators continues to rise.
The ventilators help the lungs work by moving breathable air in and out for those who are unable to breathe sufficiently on their own.
However, the process can cause ventilator-induced lung injury, contributing to patients declining condition.
But Wintec academic Dr Kevin Stewart is hoping a medication developed by the University of Auckland may prevent or reduce that damage.
To test this medication, Stewart assembled a ‘lung rig’ which simulates what happens when patients are put on a ventilator and accurately measures and imitates a pair of lungs.
Lung function and deterioration are very difficult to be measured on people, Stewart said.
‘‘I can stretch the lungs in the same way as a mechanical ventilator does.’’
The trial medication is delivered to Stewart in very small vile quantities which is dissolved in the plasma and then put through the lung rig.
Artificial blood containing the medication is put through the machine and into the lungs, allowing Stewart to make measurements on how well the blood and medication are performing.
‘‘There’s been a need for many years for people on ventilators and it is well known that there is no drug treatment available for people on ventilators that can help them,’’ Stewart said.
‘‘If we get this as a treatment it will be a first.’’
Stewart has been researching how diseases influence lung function for years and when the coronavirus pandemic emerged his knowledge was needed more than ever.
Between 40 and 95 per cent of the ventilated can die, Stewart told Stuff.
‘‘When your lungs are in a bad way because of the virus it can lead other organs like the heart, brain and kidneys to not get enough oxygen and people go into multiple organ failure and die.’’
In London, 83 per cent of the 388 people on a ventilator died, 50 per cent of the 18 ventilated died in Seattle, 94 per cent of Wuhan’s 37 ventilated died and 60 per cent of Itay’s 1300 patients needing respiratory support died, according to Stewart’s statistics.
While research looks promising, the medication benefits won’t be known for another six or seven months and Stewart hopes it could one day be used to assist Covid-19 patients.
Eventually, he hopes to test whether the drug can be inhaled.
Before the project was approved for funding by the Health Research Council it clocked up $300,000 in costs. The research is unique to New Zealand as Stewart is the only one who is able to operate the lung rig.
The University of Auckland invited Stewart to set up the lung rig pre-Covid.
‘‘The equipment is tricky to operate as there are so many pumps and measurement devices, but I like that sort of thing.’’
Stewart is working with a team from the University of Auckland led by primary investigator, Professor Anthony Phillips.
‘‘Between us there’s a range of people with very different talents and this has helped to have this research funded,’’ he said.
Dr Stewart teaches human anatomy and physiology to undergraduate and post-graduate nursing students, and he is also involved in delivering the Bachelor of Technology (Science) at Wintec.
‘‘If we get this as a treatment it will be a first.’’ Wintec academic Dr Kevin Stewart