COVID-19 Treatment: Research Suggests Seaweed Extracts May Be More Effective Than Lemudesibir

Over 100 potential vaccines and drugs are being studied for the prevention and treatment of new coronaviruses. The first drug known to be effective against SARS-CoV-2, rendecivir, has brought a lot of hope to all when approved for treatment.

However, the scientific community is still working on finding more effective ways to deal with disease. Various studies are being conducted around the world to find easier and cheaper drugs for infectious diseases.

In this process, heparin (an anticoagulant) was found to be effective in controlling blood coagulation and arrhythmias in COVID-19 patients. The drug has been tested in the UK Accord trial for efficacy against coronavirus infections.

now, Investigation Published in journal Cell discovery We suggest that seaweed extracts may be more effective than lemdecivir and heparin in neutralizing the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2.

Polysaccharide

The SARS-COV-2 virus binds to the ACE2 receptor on the surface of healthy cells and invades these cells. However, the research published in the journal Antiviral researchShowed that the virus may have specific binding sites for spike proteins on cell surface glycosaminoglycans, a type of polysaccharide sugar. It is at these sites that heparin can bind strongly to healthy cells and prevent virus entry.

Since heparin is a linear polysaccharide, current research is aimed at testing the binding efficiency of heparin and its closely related polysaccharides with the virus that causes COVID-19.

Five different polysaccharides were taken for the study. These include:

• Different variants of heparin: heparin, heparin trisulfate, non-coagulating low molecular weight heparin
• Nori Saccharina japonica RPI-27 and RPI-28 fucoidan. Commonly called sweet kelp. Both RPI-27 and RPI-28 are branched polysaccharides with a more complex structure than heparin.
• Polysaccharides such as heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, and keratan sulfate were also included in the study.

We exposed all the polysaccharides to the virus to see how they bind. As a control, the viral S protein was ingested without the polysaccharide.

Investigation result

To quantify the effect of each compound, scientists used what is called the EC50 study, which studies the amount of a particular compound needed to neutralize 50% of the virus. Therefore, the less needed, the more potent the compound.

Here’s what I found:

• RPI-27 is the most potent compound with an EC50 of about 83 nM (nanomolar). Due to its lower molecular weight, RPI-28 had a lower EC50 than RPI-27, 1.2 µM (micromolar). Micro equals 1/106, nano equals 1/109.
• The EC50 for heparin was 2.1 µM and the EC50 for heparin trisulfate was 5 µM.
• The EC50 for low molecular weight heparin was 55 µM.
• Other polysaccharides, such as heparan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, and keratan sulfate, were excluded from the study because they were unable to compete with heparin for binding to the SARS-COV-2 receptor.
• No compound was found to be toxic to healthy cells.

Previous studies have found that the EC50 for lemdecivir is approximately 770 nM and 11.4 µM.

Size matters

This study suggests that the seaweed fucoidan confers more coronavirus binding sites than linear heparin due to its complex and branched structure, which may be one of the reasons for its low EC50.

“One of the findings in this study is that the larger the molecule, the more compatible it is. The more successful compounds are the larger sulfated polysaccharides that trap the virus at more sites on the molecule. Yes,” said Jonathan Dordick, Principal Investigator of the study. news release..

Studies have suggested that all of these compounds can be used as nasal sprays, inhalers or oral doses to control coronavirus infections. This is a much easier drug delivery method than the more technical intravenous administration of lemdecivir.

For more information on remdesivir, see the following articles: Everything you want to know about lemdecibir

The Firstpost Health article was created by myUpchar.com, India’s first and largest resource for validated healthcare information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to provide all health information. COVID