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Researchers at a Canadian university are preparing a clinical trial that they hope will be effective in humans.
Researchers at the University of Alberta (Canada) are preparing a clinical trial of a drug used to cure a deadly disease caused by a coronavirus in cats that they hope will also be effective as a treatment for humans against covid-19.
"In just two months, our results have shown that the drug is effective in inhibiting viral replication in cells with SARS-CoV-2. It is very likely that this drug will work in humans, so it encourages us to think that it will be a treatment effective antiviral for patients with covid-19," explains Joanne Lemieux, leader of the study, which has been published in the journal 'Nature Communications'.
The drug is a protease inhibitor that interferes with the virus's ability to replicate, thus ending the infection. Proteases are key to many functions in the body and are common targets of drugs to treat everything from high blood pressure to cancer and HIV.
Combined with other antivirals
The researchers have established a collaboration with Anivive Life Sciences, a veterinary medicine company that is developing the drug for cats, to produce the quality and quantity of drug needed for human clinical trials.
Lemieux notes that it will likely be tested in Alberta in combination with other promising antivirals such as remdesivir, the first treatment approved for conditional use in some countries, including the United States and Canada.
