Race to ready drug for potential winter outbreak
Scientists in China believe new drug can stop pandemic ‘without vaccine’
Antibodies isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients key to treatment that shortens recovery time, offers short-term immunity in mice
This
picture taken on May 14, 2020, shows researchers at Peking University's
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics conducting tests at
their laboratory in Beijing. (Wang Zhao/AFP)
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese laboratory has been developing a
drug it believes has the power to bring the coronavirus pandemic to a
halt.
The outbreak first emerged in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.
A drug being tested by scientists at China’s prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity from the virus, researchers say.
Sunney Xie, director of the university’s Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics, told AFP that the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.
“When we injected neutralizing antibodies into infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500,” said Xie.
“That means this potential drug has (a) therapeutic effect.”
The drug uses neutralizing antibodies — produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus infecting cells — which Xie’s team isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients.
A study on the team’s research, published Sunday in the scientific journal Cell, suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential “cure” for the disease and shortens recovery time.
Xie said his team had been working “day and night” searching for the antibody.
“Planning for the clinical trial is underway,” said Xie, adding it
will be carried out in Australia and other countries since cases have
dwindled in China, offering fewer human subjects for testing.
“The hope is these neutralizing antibodies can become a specialized drug that would stop the pandemic,” he said.
More than 700 patients have received plasma therapy in China, a
process which authorities said showed “very good therapeutic effects.”
“However, it (plasma) is limited in supply,” Xie said, noting that the 14 neutralizing antibodies used in their drug could be put into mass production quickly.
The new drug could even offer short-term protection against the virus.
The study showed that if the neutralizing antibody was injected before the mice were infected with the virus, the mice stayed free of infection and no virus was detected.
The outbreak first emerged in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.
A drug being tested by scientists at China’s prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity from the virus, researchers say.
Sunney Xie, director of the university’s Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics, told AFP that the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.
“When we injected neutralizing antibodies into infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500,” said Xie.
This picture taken on May 14, 2020, shows
Sunney Xie, director of Peking University’s Beijing Advanced Innovation
Center for Genomics, during an interview at his laboratory in Beijing.
(Wang Zhao/AFP)
The drug uses neutralizing antibodies — produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus infecting cells — which Xie’s team isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients.
A study on the team’s research, published Sunday in the scientific journal Cell, suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential “cure” for the disease and shortens recovery time.
Xie said his team had been working “day and night” searching for the antibody.
“Our expertise is single-cell
genomics rather than immunology or virology. When we realized that the
single-cell genomic approach can effectively find the neutralizing
antibody we were thrilled.”
He
said he hopes that the drug will be ready for use later this year and
in time for any potential winter outbreak of the virus, which has
infected 4.8 million people around the world and killed more than
315,000.
A medical worker takes a swab sample from
a woman to be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus in Wuhan, in China’s
central Hubei province on May 19, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP)
“The hope is these neutralizing antibodies can become a specialized drug that would stop the pandemic,” he said.
China already has five potential coronavirus vaccines at the human trial stage, a health official said last week.
But the World Health Organization has warned that developing a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months.
Scientists have also pointed to the
potential benefits of plasma — a blood fluid — from recovered
individuals who have developed antibodies to the virus enabling the
body’s defenses to attack it.
Pedestrians wearing face masks walk along a business street in Beijing on May 19, 2020. (Wang Zhao/AFP)
“However, it (plasma) is limited in supply,” Xie said, noting that the 14 neutralizing antibodies used in their drug could be put into mass production quickly.
Prevention and cure
Using antibodies in drug treatments is not a new approach, and it has been successful in treating several other viruses such as HIV, Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
Xie said his researchers had “an early start” since the outbreak started in China before spreading to other countries.
Ebola drug Remdesivir was considered a
hopeful early treatment for COVID-19 — clinical trials in the US showed
it shortened the recovery time in some patients by a third — but the
difference in mortality rate was not significant.
This picture taken on May 14, 2020 shows a
researcher at Peking University’s Beijing Advanced Innovation Center
for Genomics conducting tests at their laboratory in Beijing. (Wang
Zhao/AFP)
The study showed that if the neutralizing antibody was injected before the mice were infected with the virus, the mice stayed free of infection and no virus was detected.
This may offer temporary protection for
medical workers for a few weeks, which Xie said they are hoping to
“extend to a few months.”
More than 100 vaccines for COVID-19 are in
the works globally, but as the process of vaccine development is more
demanding, Xie is hoping that the new drug could be a faster and more
efficient way to stop the global march of the coronavirus.
“We would be able to stop the pandemic with an effective drug, even without a vaccine,” he said.
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