MEDICINES THAT MAY HALT THE VIRUS
THE news last week that dexamethasone, a widely used steroid, can help save Covid patients’ lives, highlighted the potential benefits of socalled ‘re-purposed’ drugs — using current treatments to treat this new infection. Here are some of the promising latest treatments . . .
IBUPROFEN
EARLY in the pandemic, ibuprofen was linked to a raised risk of complications in patients with Covid, but the World Health Organisation has concluded there is no evidence to support that.
Now the LIBERATE trial — led by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London — is investigating the painkiller’s anti-inflammatory properties. The drug works by blocking the hormones (prostaglandins) the body releases to fight illness, and which can trigger acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) — a condition associated with Covid-19.
HEPARIN
A COMMON blood thinner, heparin inhibits the ability of the body to form clots by preventing ‘threads’ that allow blood cells to clump.
Preliminary research suggests this stroke-buster may also stop the virus, by disarming the tiny spikes on its surface — the virus uses these to bind to a receptor (ACE2) on the surface of cells to enter them. The ACCORD programme — set up by the Government’s Covid-19 taskforce in 30 UK hospitals — is trialling heparin in a spray.
BEMCENTINIB
ALREADY being tested as a cancer treatment, this daily pill has been shown to stop the virus multiplying. A trial at University Hospital Southampton is testing its ability to stop the virus replicating by preventing it binding to AXL kinase, a protein that helps cells multiply.
ZILUCOPLAN
THIS drug is being tested for the autoimmune condition myasthenia gravis (a rare condition that causes muscle weakness). Experiments in mice have shown respiratory failure caused by acute injury to the lungs from viral infection can be prevented by the drug — it works by disrupting the body’s inflammatory response, by blocking c5, a protein involved in inflammation.
Zilucoplan is being trialled in patients to preserve lung function.
MEDI3506
THIS injectable drug, already being trialled for skin disorders and lung conditions, is also being tested against the dangerous inflammation triggered by coronavirus.
MEDI3506 targets a protein (interleukin-33) implicated in exaggerated immune response to the virus, and which causes fever and organ damage.