Studies find that modified worm medicine may help treat Covid-19

A team at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States has said that a class of drugs called salicylanilide has been known to act against certain viruses for 10 to 15 years, but tends to limit the intestines. There may be toxicity issues.

According to a study published in the journal ACS infection, Modified salicylanilide compounds overcome both problems in mouse and cell-based tests.

The researchers said that these compounds act as both antiviral and anti-inflammatory drugs and have properties suitable for use in the form of tablets.

Salicylanilide was first discovered in Germany in the 1950s and was used to combat worm infections in cattle, they said.

A version containing the drug niclosamide is used today in animals and humans to treat tapeworms.

The modified salicylanilide compound was developed a few years ago by Professor Kim Janda, a professor at Scripps Research, for another project.

When the SARS-CoV-2 virus became a pandemic in early 2020, he first screened old collections of cells, knowing that they could have antiviral properties. have started.

He then worked with Scripps Research immunologist John Teijaro to perform tests on rodents.

One compound named “No. 11” stood out. This compound differs from over-the-counter pesticides in important respects, including its ability to be absorbed into the bloodstream across the intestine-and has no worrisome toxicity.

“It makes sense because niclosamide is basically a restricted gastrointestinal tract and a habitat for parasites,” says Janda.

“Therefore, it’s counterintuitive because the simple drugs that are diverted for the treatment of COVID need to be readily biologically available but not systemically toxic like niclosamide,” he said. explained.

About 80% of salicylanilide 11 has flowed into the bloodstream, while about 10% of the anthelmintic niclosamide, which has recently entered clinical trials as a treatment for COVID-19, is according to Janda.

Experiments have shown that of the many modified salicylanilides that Janda built in his lab, No. 11 affected pandemic coronavirus infection in two ways.

First, it interfered with the way the virus deposited its genetic material on infected cells. This is a process called endocytosis.

Endocytosis requires the virus to form lipid-based packets around the viral gene.

The packet enters and lyses the infected cell so that the protein-building mechanism of the infected cell can read it and release a copy of the new virus.

According to researchers, No. 11 seems to prevent packet lysis.

“The antiviral mechanism of the compound is the key,” says Janda.

“It blocks the viral material from leaving the endosome, and it just breaks down. This process does not allow new viral particles to be made so easily,” he said.

Importantly, the question of whether it works in new variants such as delta and lambda is not an issue, because the virus acts intracellularly rather than the viral spikes used to invade human cells, Janda adds. rice field.

“This mechanism is virus-spiked protein-independent, so the emergence of these new mutants does not leave us to find new molecules as in the case of vaccines and antibodies,” he said. rice field.

No. 11 also helped to calm the potentially toxic inflammation of research animals. This can be important in the treatment of acute respiratory distress associated with life-threatening COVID infections.

It reduced levels of interleukin 6, a signaling protein that is a major cause of inflammation commonly found in the advanced stages of COVID-19, the researchers added.