[ad_1]
After the vaccines, the final race for the set-up has begun a drug capable of defeating Covid.
British scientists have started testing A drug capable of preventing a subject exposed to the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus from developing the disease triggered by the virus. The drug, according to the British Guardian newspaper, could guarantee immediate immunity.
Therapy – based on monoclonal antibodies – could guarantee a6-12 month immunity and could be administered as emergency treatment of risk groups, as hospitalized patients or guests of nursing homes and care, to avoid the birth of outbreaks and the participation of fragile subjects. The drug could also be given to people who live in families where someone has contracted the virus.
The pharmacological study led by Professor Catherine Houlihan, Virologist at University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH). If we can show that this treatment works and can prevent people exposed to the virus from developing Covid-19, it would add another element to the arsenal of weapons that are being developed to combat this terrible virus.
The drug was developed by UCLH and AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company that, together with the University of Oxford, has also created one of the vaccines that will be used against the coronavirus (whose use should soon be approved by the British Drug Authority and, later, by the European one). The drug could be available in March or April if approved at the end of the trials, which cover a network of 100 sites around the world.
The 5 monoclonal antibodies under study
As Sandro Modeo indicates in this trial at Corriere, monoclonal antibodies are the engineered processing of natural antibodies produced by the patient’s immune system against the invasion of a specific pathogen or other agent external to the body (for example, a tumor growth). . Where the elaboration consists of choosing the most effective ones (for each invader there are many active antibodies, like many keys for a lock, but with different precision) and making them replicate to exert the defense action. Drugs based on monoclonal antibodies could, in fact, guarantee immediate immunity: unlike vaccines (which require two doses to provide complete immunity).
The most promising drugs are five at the moment: in addition to AstraZeneca, there is Regeneron (Regn-Cov2) administered to the President of the United States Donald Trump and built with a cocktail of 2 monoclonal antibodies (here the explanation of Cristina Marrone); Ely Lilly’s; that of the Monoclonal Antibody Discovery Lab of the Tuscany Life Sciences Foundation (Siena), identified under the supervision of Rino Rappuoli (whose tests have just started and the approval-commercialization planned for March: he talked about it here, in an article by Laura Cuppini) ; and that of Prometheus by Karlik Chandran (Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York).
The main difficulty of this type of drug is linked to the very high costs: but they could be decisive in the arsenal against the virus, together with vaccines and prophylaxis measures (distancing, mask, hygiene).
[ad_2]
