Chinese think they have a cure

CLINICAL TRIAL: AUSTRALIANS TO BE THE GUINEA PIGS

Antibodies used in the drug can be put into mass production easily.

AChinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt. The outbreak first emerged last year in China before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.

A drug being tested by scientists at China’s prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity, researchers say.

Sunney Xie, director of the university’s Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Genomics, said the drug had been successful at the animal testing stage.

“When we injected neutralising antibodies into infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2 500,” said Xie. “That means this potential drug has [a] therapeutic effect.”

The drug uses neutralising antibodies – produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus infecting cells – which Xie’s team isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients.

A study published in the scientific journal Cell suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential “cure” for the disease and shortens recovery time.

Xie said his team had been working “day and night” searching for the antibody.

“Our expertise is single-cell genomics rather than immunology or virology. When we realised the single-cell genomic approach can effectively find the neutralising antibody we were thrilled.”

He added the drug should be ready for use later this year, in time for a potential winter outbreak of the deadly virus.

“Planning for the clinical trial is underway,” said Xie, adding it will be carried out in Australia and other countries since cases have dwindled in China, offering fewer human guinea pigs.

“The hope is these neutralised antibodies can become a specialised drug that would stop the pandemic,” he said.

China already has five potential coronavirus vaccines at the human trial stage, a health official said last week.

Scientists have also pointed to the potential “very good therapeutic effects” of plasma – a blood fluid – from recovered individuals who have developed antibodies to the virus.

Xie noted the 14 neutralising antibodies used could be put into mass production quickly.

The new drug could even offer short-term protection against the virus.

The study showed that if the neutralising antibody was injected before the mice were infected with the virus, the mice stayed free of infection.

This may offer temporary protection for medical workers for a few weeks, which Xie said they are hoping to “extend to a few months”. –