New Drug for COVID-19 Treatment

The drug masitinib may effectively treat COVID-19 based on trials by scientists from the University of Chicago.

Though the drug has undergone several clinical trials for human conditions, it has not received approval to treat humans. This drug inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in human cell cultures and a mouse model, leading to much lower viral loads.

‘The drug masitinib has antiviral properties that can used effectively against COVID-19.’

"Inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2, like masitinib, could be a new potential way to treat COVID patients, especially in early stages of the disease," said Savas Tay of the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, who led the research.

COVID-19 will continue to arise in the future so finding existing drugs with antiviral properties can be essential in treating these diseases.

First researchers started to screen a library of 1,900 clinically safe drugs against OC43, a coronavirus that causes the common cold and can be studied under regular biosafety conditions. Then they used cell cultures to determine the drugs' effect on infection and found nearly 20 drugs that inhibit SARS-CoV-2.

Among the drug candidates, masitinib completely inhibited the viral enzyme inside the cell, which was confirmed by X-ray crystallography. The results of the study were published in journal Science.

Currently, masitinib is only approved to treat mast cell tumors in dogs, it has undergone human clinical trials for several diseases, including melanoma, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and asthma.

It is safe in humans but does cause side effects, including gastrointestinal disorders and edema, and could potentially raise a patient's risk for heart disease.

In parallel, the researchers also began to test the drug in cell cultures against other viruses and found that it was also effective against picornaviruses,including hepatitis A, polio, and rhinoviruses that cause the common cold.

They also tested it in cell cultures against three SARS-CoV-2 variants, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, and found that it worked equally well against them, since it binds to the protease and not to the surface of the virus.

Now, the team is working with the pharmaceutical company that developed masitinib (AB Science) to adjust the drug to make it more effective antiviral. Meanwhile, masitinib itself can be taken to human clinical trials in the future to test it as a COVID-19 treatment.



Source: Medindia