In a new study, researchers found that a common drug, already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), may also be a powerful tool in fighting COVID-19.
The research was conducted by a team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, uses a surface spike protein to latch onto human cells, and initiate infection.
But heparin, a blood thinner also available in non-anticoagulant varieties, binds tightly with the surface spike protein, potentially blocking the infection from happening.
This makes it a decoy, which might be introduced into the body using a nasal spray or nebulizer and run interference to lower the odds of infection.
Similar decoy strategies have already shown promise in curbing other viruses, including influenza A, Zika, and dengue.
The team says this approach could be used as an early intervention to reduce the infection among people who have tested positive but aren’t yet suffering symptoms.
But they also see this as part of a larger antiviral strategy.
In previous work, the team demonstrated the decoy strategy on viruses with a mechanism similar to SARS-CoV-2.
In 2019, the team created a trap for dengue virus, attaching specific aptamers—molecules the viral latches will bind to—precisely to the tips and vertices of a five-pointed star made of folded DNA.
Floating in the bloodstream, the trap lights up when sprung, creating the world’s most sensitive test for mosquito-borne diseases.
In work prior to that, they created a synthetic polymer configured to match the sialic acid latch points on the influenza virus, reducing influenza A mortality in mice from 100% to 25% over 14 days.
One author of the study is Robert Linhardt, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The study is published in Antiviral Research.
Copyright © 2020 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
