The anti-Ebola drug remdesivir is "highly effective" at halting the action of SARS-Cov-2 virus, according to new laboratory research.
Researchers in Alberta, Canada, had already tested the drug against the MERS virus – and repeated their study on the Covid-19 virus.
They report that the drug is a "very potent" inhibitor against coronavirus polymerases. The drug was developed in 2014 to combat Ebola.
The findings were reported in Journal of Biological Chemistry
Researcher Matthias Götte stressed that only clinical trials would confirm whether it was effective in humans.
But, he said: "If you target the polymerase, the virus cannot spread, so it’s a very logical target for treatment. These coronavirus polymerases are sloppy and they get fooled, so the inhibitor gets incorporated many times and the virus can no longer replicate."
Remdesivir is a direct-acting antiviral that inhibits RNA-dependent RNA polymerase from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 with high potency. Journal of Biological Chemistry 13 April 2020
http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.RA120.013679
* Patients with loss of taste and smell during Covid-19 infection appear to have a good chance of recovery, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, USA, said the symptoms were ten times as likely to be associated with Covid-19 as other infections.
The findings come from a survey of 1,480 patients tested in San Diego with flu-like symptoms last month. Among the patients 102 tested positive for Covid-19 infection.
Researcher Dr Carol Yan said: "Our study not only showed that the high incidence of smell and taste is specific to COVID-19 infection, but we fortunately also found that for the majority of people sensory recovery was generally rapid."
International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology 12 April 2020
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/alr.22579
* Zoonotic viruses are found across many species, not just in bats – suggesting future threats could emerge from many mammals or birds, according to researchers at Glasgow University, UK.
The most diverse animal orders host the most zoonotic viruses – suggesting that bats are not unique in being a potential source of dangerous new viruses, according to the university’s centre for virus research.
They reported their analysis in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last night.
Researcher Dr Daniel Streicker said: "Our finding that the number of zoonoses that have emerged from bats is about what would be expected for any mammalian group of their size casts doubt on the idea that traits of bats produce viruses with a heightened propensity to infect humans.
"To know if there is anything special about bats, we now need to understand whether the bat viruses that do jump to humans cause more severe disease or spread better among humans than viruses from other animals, which is currently uncertain.”
Viral zoonotic risk is homogenous across taxonomic orders of mammalian and avian reservoir hosts. PNAS 13 April 2020
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