In a new study, researchers found that treatment with antivirals such as interferons may strongly improve virus clearance and reduce levels of inflammatory proteins in COVID-19 patients.
They found that treatment with interferon (IFN)-α2b strongly reduced the duration of detectable virus in the upper respiratory tract and reduced blood levels of interleukin(IL)-6 and C-reactive protein (CRP), two inflammatory proteins found in the human body.
The findings show potential for the development of an effective antiviral treatment for COVID-19, which is an ongoing global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
The researchers say interferons are the first line of defense against any and all viruses – but viruses such as corona-viruses have co-evolved to very specifically block an interferon response.
This informs researchers of the importance of interferons for the clearance of virus infections. Treatment with interferon will override the inhibitory effects of the virus.
The research was conducted by a team at the University of Toronto.
The team considered IFN-α therapy for COVID-19 after they demonstrated interferons had therapeutic benefits during the SARS outbreak of 2002 and 2003.
In this study, they examined the course of disease in a cohort of 77 individuals with con-firmed COVID-19 admitted to Union Hospital, Tongii Medical College, Wuhan, China, between January 16th and February 20th, 2020.
The individuals evaluated in this study consisted of only moderate cases of COVID-19, as none of the patients required intensive care or oxygen supplementation or intubation.
Patients were either treated with IFN-α2b, arbidol (ARB), which is a broad-spectrum antiviral, or a combination of IFN-α2b plus ARB, and viral clearance was defined as two consecutive negative tests for virus at least 24 hours apart, from throat swab samples.
The researchers demonstrated a very different rate of viral clearance for each treatment group and notably, IFN-α2b treatment accelerated viral clearance by approximately 7 days.
Treatment with IFN-α2b, whether alone or in combination with ARB, accelerated viral clearance when compared to ARB treatment alone.
IFN treatment was also demonstrated to significantly reduce circulating levels of IL-6 and CRP, whether alone or in combination with ARB.
The influence of age, co-morbidities, and sex did not negate the effects of IFN treatment on viral clearance times or on the reduction in the inflammatory proteins IL-6 and CRP.
The work provides several important and novel insights into COVID-19 disease, notably that treatment with IFN-α2b accelerated viral clearance from the upper respiratory tract and also reduced circulating inflammatory biomarkers.
These findings show functional connections between viral infection and host end-organ damage by limiting the subsequent inflammatory response in the lungs of patients.
In the meantime, the findings from this study are the first to suggest the therapeutic efficacy of IFN-α2b as an available antiviral intervention for COVID-19, which may also benefit public health measures by shortening the duration of viral clearance and therefore slowing the tide of the pandemic.
The lead author of the study is Dr. Eleanor Fish of the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute & University of Toronto’s Department of Immunology.
The study is published in Frontiers in Immunology.
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