Widely-used antiparasitic drug kills novel coronavirus in lab tests
In a major development, a team of Australian scientists has discovered that an antiparasitic drug, which is already widely available in the market, could be the way to treat the novel coronavirus disease. They have demonstrated the effectiveness of the drug in lab settings and are now moving towards human clinical trials to help the world fight the deadly pandemic. Here's more about it.
While exploring existing drugs as potential COVID-19 treatments, the researchers at the Monash University in Melbourne found that Ivermectin, an FDA-approved medicine to fight HIV, Influenza, and Zika, can prevent the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) from growing in cell cultures. In their "in vitro" lab tests, the drug proved effective and was able to kill the virus grown in cell cultures within just 48 hours.
Kylie Wagstaff, the researcher who led the study published in Antiviral Research, says "...Even a single dose [of the drug] could essentially remove all viral RNA (genetic material) by 48 hours and... even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it."
The demonstration of the drug's effectiveness is a major step forward in the ongoing hunt for an anti-viral treatment of COVID-19. However, right now, the work has just been done in a Petri dish at a lab; the team has to show the effectiveness of the drug inside the human body to prove that it could fight the coronavirus effectively.
That said, the team is now working to secure funding and necessary approvals for pre-clinical and clinical trials of the drug. Once that's done, they will conduct several tests to see how (and in what dose) the medicine fights the virus inside the human body and if it leaves any side effects. Generally, Wagstaff notes, Ivermectin is seen as a safe drug.
The possibility of seeing this drug as an anti-viral treatment for COVID-19 depends directly on how the upcoming tests pan out. Wagstaff says that in times like these when there's no treatment for the pandemic, a compound that is widely available globally could come in very handy. However, she added, "Realistically it's going to be a while before a vaccine is broadly available."
