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From our local paper, unfortunately behind a paywall. However, a precis follows:
Just up the road from where I live, Griffith University has developed a treatment to reduce the viral load by up to 99.99%. It uses a “gene-silencing” antiviral treatment that kills COVID-19 in what would be an “important missing piece” in the arsenal against the virus.
In collaboration with scientists from the City of Hope research centre in the US, Professor Nigel McMillan says the “next-generation” approach would stop the virus from replicating in the lungs. Animal trials revealed the antiviral treatment reduced the viral load in mice lungs by 99.99 per cent. Traditional antivirals, such as Tamiflu and Remdesivir, reduce symptoms and help people recover earlier. This new technology uses small interfering RNA (siRNA) particles to directly attack the virus’s genome, stopping it from replicating. Lipid nanoparticles are used to deliver the siRNA particles to the lungs. They are injected into the bloodstream, then head straight for the lungs, going into just about every lung cell.
Professor McMillan said it would be effective against all future variants of COVID-19 but had yet to identify how late they could treat someone, although the animal studies were encouraging. “This allows the immune system to come and clean it all up and give you that ultimate cure. With that sort of reduction in viral load, people won’t transmit the virus and have a good chance of recovery. For all antivirals, the earlier you get it into someone, the better the outcome.”
The treatment can work on all betacoronavirus, including the original SARS virus, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), and any new variants that could arise in the future because it “targets ultra-conserved regions in the virus’s genome”.
“We have shown that these nanoparticles are stable at 4C for 12 months, and at room temperature for greater than one month, meaning Doctors could use this agent in low-resource settings to treat infected patients.”
The team is hoping to progress to the next stage of trials by the end of the year, and if proven effective, it could be made available commercially by 2022.
Thanks
Bill
Just up the road from where I live, Griffith University has developed a treatment to reduce the viral load by up to 99.99%. It uses a “gene-silencing” antiviral treatment that kills COVID-19 in what would be an “important missing piece” in the arsenal against the virus.
In collaboration with scientists from the City of Hope research centre in the US, Professor Nigel McMillan says the “next-generation” approach would stop the virus from replicating in the lungs. Animal trials revealed the antiviral treatment reduced the viral load in mice lungs by 99.99 per cent. Traditional antivirals, such as Tamiflu and Remdesivir, reduce symptoms and help people recover earlier. This new technology uses small interfering RNA (siRNA) particles to directly attack the virus’s genome, stopping it from replicating. Lipid nanoparticles are used to deliver the siRNA particles to the lungs. They are injected into the bloodstream, then head straight for the lungs, going into just about every lung cell.
Professor McMillan said it would be effective against all future variants of COVID-19 but had yet to identify how late they could treat someone, although the animal studies were encouraging. “This allows the immune system to come and clean it all up and give you that ultimate cure. With that sort of reduction in viral load, people won’t transmit the virus and have a good chance of recovery. For all antivirals, the earlier you get it into someone, the better the outcome.”
The treatment can work on all betacoronavirus, including the original SARS virus, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), and any new variants that could arise in the future because it “targets ultra-conserved regions in the virus’s genome”.
“We have shown that these nanoparticles are stable at 4C for 12 months, and at room temperature for greater than one month, meaning Doctors could use this agent in low-resource settings to treat infected patients.”
The team is hoping to progress to the next stage of trials by the end of the year, and if proven effective, it could be made available commercially by 2022.
Thanks
Bill