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The search for an effective drug for the treatment of covid-19 continues at a dizzying pace worldwide. Method trials involving Swedish researchers include a treatment that was originally developed during the 2003 epidemic.
It is about the drug APN01, which works briefly by providing the body with additional doses of a molecule, ACE2, which already exists in the human body, ACE2. The molecule is the receptor to which the new coronavirus binds to enter human cells.
By injecting more ACE2 into the human body, the researchers hope they can trick the virus and prevent it from damaging more cells.
– We produce the molecule in test tubes and give it to the patients. When the virus detects the molecule that attaches to it and therefore cannot enter the cell, says Ali Mirazimi, an assistant professor of clinical virology at the Karolinska Institute, and continues:
– APN01 has two arms. First, it binds to the virus and ensures that it cannot infect more cells. Second, it also helps repair damage that the virus has already caused.
Ali Mirazimi.
Photo: Bildmakarna / Karolinska Institute
In the early spring issued an international investigation team with information that APN01 showed promising results in tests on test tubes and miniature artificial organs. Currently, trials are underway for 200 patients who are ill with covid-19 in Austria, Denmark and Germany.
The study is double blind and Ali Mirazimi is currently unaware of the effects the drug has on patients. However, in laboratory experiments, it has been possible to stop the virus from reproducing in cells at 99.9 percent.
– It looks promising at the laboratory level, but we are waiting for the results of the treatment of the patients one or a few months at most. We don’t evaluate patients for more than a week, so the 200 patients should get together quickly, says Ali Marazimi.
Since a time ago The World Health Organization (WHO) is leading a global initiative to develop safe and effective vaccines, tests and drugs for covid-19. This is to be able to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease.
The organization said Tuesday that it has identified a handful of treatments that look promising, but does not mention what it is.
“We have some treatments that in very early studies seem to limit the severity and duration of the disease, but we have nothing that can kill or stop the virus,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said on Tuesday according to Reuters and continues:
– We have potentially positive data coming out, but we need more information to be 100 percent sure that we can say that this treatment is preferable to the other.
The American pharmaceutical company Gilead Science claims that its antiviral medication remdesivir helps improve the condition of patients with covid-19.
It is also one of four drugs or drug combinations that the WHO reviews in its global study. In addition to remdesivir, these include the antimalarial drug, chloroquine, the HIV drug ritonavir / lopinavir, and the combination of ritonavir / lopinavir and interferon beta.
In the United States, authorities recently granted an emergency license, which means that remdesivir can be used in the country’s medical care to treat patients with covid-19.
It may take a while before it is known whether the drug will receive formal approval even in Europe, says the Swedish Medicines Agency. Results of an evaluation by the European Medicines Agency, EMA, are still awaited.
– It is not possible to make an evaluation at this time, because you continuously obtain data. You work as fast as you can, says Karl-Mikael Kälkner, developer of the subject area of the Swedish Medicines Agency.
Anders Sönnerborg, professor i Clinical virology at the Karolinska Institute, which is leading Swedish research on remdesivir, has emphasized in a previous DN interview that the promising US results. USA With regard to the effects of remdesivir they should be interpreted with great caution.
Sönnerborg stated that remdesivir cannot be described as a “magic bullet” that will dramatically improve prospects for the treatment of covid-19.
Ali Mirazimi says that a problem has actually developed with the drugs currently used in the treatment of covid-19 for other diseases.
– They are not specific, but it is hoped that it can save some lives. We have taken an approach that is very specific for this particular corona virus, “he says.
Read more:
Calendar: then we can have rapid tests, medications and vaccines against the new coronavirus
WHO study tests drug against new coronavirus – Norway first
