In a new study, researchers found out how the SARS-CoV-2 virus impacts the lung cells within the first few hours of infection.
They also found that several existing FDA-approved drugs—including some originally designed to fight cancer—can stop coronavirus in its tracks.
The research was conducted by a team at Boston University.
In the study, the team infected tens of thousands of human lung cells with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and then tracked precisely what happens in all of those cells during the first few moments after infection.
As if that was not complicated enough, the team had to cool their entire high-containment research facility to a brisk 61 degrees Fahrenheit.
The team revealed the most comprehensive map to date of all the molecular activities that are triggered inside lung cells at the onset of coronavirus infection.
They also discovered there are at least 18 existing, FDA-approved drugs that could potentially be repurposed to combat COVID-19 infections shortly after a person becomes infected.
Experimentally, five of those drugs reduced coronavirus spread in human lung cells by more than 90%.
The team also confirmed that existing drugs remdesivir and camostat are effective in combating the virus, though neither is a perfect fix for controlling the inflammation that COVID-19 causes.
Remdesivir, a broad-use antiviral, has already been used clinically in coronavirus patients.
But based on the study’s findings that the virus does serious damage to cells within hours, setting off inflammation, there’s likely not much that antiviral drugs like remdesivir can do once an infection has advanced to the point where someone would need to be put on a ventilator in the ICU.
Now, academic and industry collaborators from around the world are in contact with the team about the next steps to move their findings from bench to bedside.
More effective and well-timed therapeutic interventions could help reduce the overall number of deaths related to COVID-19 infections.
One author of the study is Elke Mühlberger.
The study is published in Molecular Cell.
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