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Researchers have demonstrated that EIDD-2801, an oral antiviral drug, can be used as either a prophylactic or a therapeutic for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The drug also showed efficacy against related coronaviruses SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.
Collaborators from the University of North Carolina at (UNC-) Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD), all US, tested EIDD-2801 in both mice and cultured human lung cells infected with the various coronaviruses. Their findings were published in Science Translational Medicine.
Abstract
Coronaviruses (CoVs) traffic frequently between species resulting in novel disease outbreaks, most recently exemplified by the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. Herein, we show that the ribonucleoside analog β-D-N4-hydroxycytidine (NHC, EIDD-1931) has broad spectrum antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and related zoonotic group 2b or 2c Bat-CoVs, as well as increased potency against a coronavirus bearing resistance mutations to the nucleoside analog inhibitor remdesivir. In mice infected with SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV, both prophylactic and therapeutic administration of EIDD-2801, an orally bioavailable NHC-prodrug (β-D-N4-hydroxycytidine-5′-isopropyl ester), improved pulmonary function, and reduced virus titer and body weight loss. Decreased MERS-CoV yields in vitro and in vivo were associated with increased transition mutation frequency in viral but not host cell RNA, supporting a mechanism of lethal mutagenesis in CoV. The potency of NHC/EIDD-2801 against multiple coronaviruses and oral bioavailability highlight its potential utility as an effective antiviral against SARS-CoV-2 and other future zoonotic coronaviruses.
originally posted by: HelloboysImbackguy
a reply to: Liquesence
That looks promising. I havent ready the study yet and wouldn't understand half of it without google, but I think its smart to target the RNA of the coronavirus.
I just wouldn't trust that they arent also provoking host cell RNA mutations as well. This could have bad side effects I imagine.