Since the beginning of the Covid-19 health crisis, several drugs have been tested in an attempt to treat patients already infected. Some have not proved to be effective; others have proved to be interesting at the very beginning of the disease. This time, Israeli researchers believe they have found the long-awaited cure through three treatments, which according to the Times of Israel, would be “almost 100% effective”. What drugs are involved?
It would be a drug used against HIV, whose name has not yet been revealed, another against atherosclerosis (a disease that clogs the arteries, explains Inserm) called Darapladib, and finally Flumatinib, an anticancer drug under study (in phase 3 in 2020, according to the site e-cancer) against chronic myeloid leukemia.
Molecules that attack the virus envelope
These three molecules have been proven effective against cells infected with SARS-CoV-2. That is to say, they would have allowed cells infected with Covid-19 to stay alive. “For example, under conventional circumstances, about half of the cells would have died within two days of contact with the virus,” said study leader Professor Isaiah Arkin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
As we already know, the virus has a protein that has the shape of a spike called “Spike,” which comes to attack and infect the cells. Until now, it is this protein that we were trying to neutralize. This time, Israeli researchers have tried to attack the virus from another angle: with drugs that would target the membrane that envelops the virus. This could be all the more interesting as the latter remains stable from one variant to the next. In fact, despite mutations, this type of approach could remain effective.
That said, this study was carried out in laboratories, “in vitro,” and does not yet allow us to affirm that these molecules will be able to help or save infected patients.
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