More than five weeks ago I wrote a post taking note of an effort to test systematically a number of drugs that had already received FDA approval for other uses but that there was reason to believe might be effective in treating COVID-19. There has been been a follow-up report at The Conversation from that group of researchers:
Our multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, called the QCRG, identified 69 existing drugs and compounds with potential to treat COVID-19. A month ago, we began shipping boxes of these drugs off to Institut Pasteur in Paris and Mount Sinai in New York to see if they do in fact fight the coronavirus.
In the last four weeks, we have tested 47 of these drugs and compounds in the lab against live coronavirus. I’m happy to report we’ve identified some strong treatment leads and identified two separate mechanisms for how these drugs affect SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our findings were published on April 30 in the journal Nature.
In summary their in vitro studies have shown some success. Two groups of drugs have been at least a little successful, one group that interfered with what’s called “translation”, the ability of the virus to make previously healthy cells start making viral RNA, the other that interfered with the virus’s ability to infect cells. They also found two other interesting results. The first result was that hydroxychloroquine does interfere with the virus’s ability to infect cells but does not do so very effectively. The second was that a common ingredient in cough syrup, dextromethorphan, actually facilitates the operation of the virus. They don’t have enough evidence to say that dextromethorphan should be avoided but it’s interesting.
Dr. Krogan concludes:
The next step is to test these drugs in human trials. We have already started this process and through these trials researchers will examine important factors such as dosage, toxicity and potential beneficial or harmful interactions within the context of COVID-19.
Their study is proceeding slowly and painstakingly which is, indeed, the way that science works. Under the circumstances it’s frustrating but it’s actually exciting that their approach to looking for a treatment for COVID-19 has worked at all.
