Breaking News | Coronavirus: Three FDA Approved Drugs Prevent Infection in Mouse Tests

Three drugs already on the market have been found to be effective in preventing infection of human cells. Coronavirus, The study published today reveals.

Experiments in laboratory-raised mini-lungs transplanted into mice examined existing drugs stopping the COVID-19-causing virus SARS-CoV-2 and invading human cells.

Drugs called imatinib, mycophenolic acid (MPA), and quinacrine dihydrochloride (QNHC) have been shown to be effective in stopping the virus.

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Versatile human stem cells were used to make small lungs and colons called organoids.

“Organoids are mini-tissues grown on Petri dishes,” said Dr. Shuibing Chen, co-author of the study. Nature Weil Cornell Medicine told Mail Online.

She adds that it “more faithfully reproduces complex cell types and structures” than other scientific models such as monkey and human cancer cell lines.

The lungs and colon were chosen because the virus is known to propagate in these organs after infection.

Respiratory problems most often develop with symptomatological infections, and gastrointestinal problems are found in about a quarter of patients and are often the most dire case.

When the organoids were cultured and fully developed, researchers discovered that the organoids express the ACE2 receptor in many cells.

This protein is the way the coronavirus infects people when the virus tricks the receptor into opening and invading the virus.

As a result, it is called the “gateway to cells” and many studies have focused on preventing this interaction.

The next step in the study is how the myriad drugs approved for use in the United States by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) affect organs both before and after exposure to SARS-CoV-2. I investigated.

Imatinib, also known as the brand name Gleevec, was effective in controlling the infection.

It is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and has been used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia and other cancers since the 1990s.

Currently 4 clinical trials We are investigating how effective imatinib is in treating Covid-19.

Two exams in Egypt and France have not yet begun to find participants, but two exams in the United States and Spain are open for recruitment.

MPA, also known as mycophenolate mofetil and CellCept, is used as an immunosuppressive drug to prevent coronavirus infection, prevent organ rejection after transplantation, and to treat autoimmune diseases such as Chron’s.

A 2014 study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which investigated the 2012 MERS epidemic also caused by the coronavirus, found MPA or a combination thereof. [with other drugs]It may be beneficial in the treatment of MERS-CoV.

QNHC (Acrikin, Atabulin, Atebrin, Mepacrine) is an approved antimalarial drug, structurally similar to the controversial antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, once advertised as a Covid treatment by US President Donald Trump I am.

For MPA and QNHC, there are no studies investigating whether Covid-19 can be treated or prevented.

“As far as we know, this is the first time three drugs have been identified. [as potential treatments] From fair screening to treat patients with COVID, “says Dr. Chen.

In May’, I reported a preprinted version of my research on bioRxiv. Several clinical trials have been initiated to evaluate imatinib in patients with COVID-19.

The survey results are the study Last week, I saw researchers make artificial lungs in two independent and separate studies to investigate the Covid-19 epidemic.

The “living lungs” model mimics the small air sacs that take up the oxygen we breathe, called the alveoli, where the most severe lung damage caused by the virus occurs.

Access to these organic models to test the spread of SARS-CoV-2 could be an important weapon in the fight against COVID-19, the authors of both papers said.