Israel researchers test drug to prevent severe Covid cases

Researchers from Israel claim to have developed a drug that can help modulate the immune system and prevent a cytokine storm – a condition in which the body’s immune response goes into an overdrive and starts attacking its own tissues and organs – in patients of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). It is the cytokine storm that leads to the deaths of most patients with the viral infection.

The drug, which is inhaled just like asthma medication, has been administered to 35 Covid-19 patients in different doses at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center–ichilov Hospital. The researchers said that there was a marked improvement in their oxygen saturation and respiratory rate after the drug was administered for five days.

The last patient to have been administered the medicine is still under follow-up after which the researchers will publish the data, they said in an online press briefing on Wednesday.

The drug uses enriched exosomes released by cell membranes for intercellular communication from a protein called CD24. This, the researchers hypothesise, prevents the inflammatory stimuli from interacting with the body’s immune cells as well as blocking the receptor that regulates the body’s immune response to the tissue injuries.

“This gives us a lot of hope. However, we cannot say it is an effective drug till we have studies comparing the therapy with placebo in randomised control trial. Our solution is fast and efficient as it can be given nasally and goes directly to the lungs. It is also easy to produce. Once proven, we can supply it to the world within a few months,” said professor Nadir Arber, Director of the Integrated Cancer Prevention Centre at the hospital.

The doctors have not seen any side effects of the drug in the 35 patients, they said. The researchers are currently looking at collaborations with other countries for the phase II and III trials of the drug.

In pre-clinical trials on mice, the doctors also noticed that there weren’t any lung lesions, according to the research. In Covid-19 patients, the cytokine storm damages the lung tissue, which while healing hardens, leading to a condition called Fibrosis that reduces the capacity of the lungs.