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Vienna A drug that prevents the Sars-CoV-2 virus from entering cells appears to be working. According to a case study published in the journal “The Lancet Respiratory Medicine,” it is said to have helped at least one patient with severe Covid 19 disease.
Treatment with the candidate drug APN01 “went hand in hand with a major clinical improvement,” the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (Imba) and the Vienna company Apeiron Biologics report in a broadcast. APN01 was developed by a team led by Austrian geneticist and former Imba boss Josef Penninger.
The ACE2 receptor (angiotensin converting enzyme) is a protein on the surface of cells. It can receive signals from outside and channel them into the cell. ACE-2 protects against lung failure, but at the same time opens the door to the interior of the cell for the coronavirus. The pathogen attaches itself to the receptor and enters with it. The drug candidate APN01 (Recombinant soluble ACE2) is a biotechnologically produced protein that looks exactly like the receptor, but does not open the door.
The case study shows that the pathogen Sars-CoV-2 could be specifically blocked by the administration of APN01. The basis of the mechanism of action was developed at Imba in 2005. At that time, the ACE2 receptor was described by Josef Penninger and his colleagues as the essential in vivo entry point for a coronavirus that caused a global outbreak of Sars lung disease. in 2003. Sars was associated with a much more difficult course than Sars-CoV-2, but then it disappeared again.
The new coronavirus uses the same mechanism to infect cells. The typical spike structures, the characteristic irregular surface proteins of virus particles, bind even more strongly to ACE2 receptors.
Heart, lungs, kidney
In addition to protecting the lungs, ACE2 has a second vital function. Regulates blood pressure and protects the heart and blood vessels from serious diseases. Therefore, the attachment points are not only in the lungs, but also in the heart, in the blood vessels, in the intestines and in the kidneys. This fact could explain the course of severe Covid-19 disease through organ failure and sepsis. “ACE2 is at the center of drug research and development for Covid-19. We have presented the first data on ACE2 therapy,” emphasizes Alexander Zoufaly, the first author of the publication. “The results of this one patient case study are encouraging and support the rationale for further investigation of APN01 as a therapy for the treatment of Covid-19 in phase II clinical trials.” The authors note, however, that it remains “speculative” whether the decrease in viral load reflects the effect of APN01 treatment or the natural course of the disease.(East)
