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A consortium formed by the University of Coimbra, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra and two companies, one Portuguese and the other Canadian, wants to develop an innovative therapy to eliminate the virus that causes covid-19 “in a few seconds”, this was announced Wednesday market.
With the name of Fotovid, the project aims to eliminate the SARS-Cov-2 virus, responsible for covid-19, “right at the main ‘gateway’ of the body, that is, in the nostrils, by means of photodynamic therapy ”, Says the University of Coimbra (UC), in a note sent to the Lusa agency.
The research, which “has just obtained 450 thousand euros of funding” from the 2020 Center Operative Program, brings together the UC in a consortium, through multidisciplinary teams from the Faculties of Science and Technology (FCTUC) and Medicine (FMUC), the Center Hospitalario y Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC) and LaserLeap, from Coimbra, which coordinates the project, and Ondine Biomedical (Canada), a world leader in antibacterial photodisinfection.
Fotovid is based on the “recent knowledge that SARS-Cov-2 is associated with a protein preferably present in the nasal passages, where a virus reservoir is responsible for the transmission of the disease and generalization of the infection”, refer the consortium leaders.
Thus, “the inactivation of viruses present in the nasal passages in the early stages of covid-19 can accelerate treatment, allow only the most benign forms of the disease to manifest themselves and help prevent the spread of the pandemic.”
Using a nasal disinfection technology created by the project’s Canadian partner company, which is already used worldwide to eliminate multi-resistant bacteria, the consortium will develop an innovative therapy capable of killing viruses, in particular the coronavirus responsible for covid-19 .
The investigation will thus be “much faster and, if successful, the placing on the market will be easier and at a reduced cost”, highlights the UC.
“This is the innovation of the project, since the technology was never applied to the inactivation of viruses”, underlines, quoted by UC, Luís Arnaut, one of the scientists involved in the research.
“We are proposing a procedure with a high degree of sophistication, which has already demonstrated its effectiveness in disinfecting the nasal passages, even for multi-resistant bacteria in which existing therapeutic alternatives always fail, that is, it has been possible to inactivate multi-resistant bacteria with photodynamic therapy ”, he explains.
“This high degree of sophistication is predicting the greatest success of therapy to combat covid-19,” argues Luís Arnaut.
In practice, synthesizes the FCTUC professor, the consortium proposes “a repositioning of molecules”, that is, a therapy is used that “is being used to destroy multi-resistant bacteria”, repositioning them to kill viruses.
The first tests will begin in October, at the UC School of Medicine, with virus samples from patients infected with COVID-19, provided by CHUC.
Subsequently, when the efficacy of the photodynamic inactivation of the virus is proven, clinical trials will follow next year (which will be coordinated by specialists Manuel Santos Rosa and José Saraiva da Cunha) with volunteer patients.
Photodynamic therapy is a non-invasive, fast (it can last only a few seconds) and low cost treatment.
Project leaders argue that this technology aims to be the first therapeutic option, eliminating the virus at a very early stage and thus preventing the disease from progressing to more serious stages.
It is a therapeutic alternative, which consists of directly attacking the entry of the virus into the body, to reduce the viral load in the place where it is most critical, sums up Luís Arnaut.
The technology “will be applied at an early stage of treatment, to avoid further complications, on an outpatient basis,” he concluded.
