The chemical compound plitidepsin (trade name Aplidin) was first extracted from a marine organism known as Aplidium albicans, commonly known as ascidians. Researchers recently published in Science the results of preclinical experiments involving the use of plitidepsin to treat human and mouse cells infected with SARS-CoV-2. They found evidence to suggest that it is possible that this drug could be used as a therapy for COVID-19.
The drug has been used in the past and has been approved in Australia as a treatment for a type of cancer called multiple myeloma. But because there are so many potential drug compounds, researchers can screen them for other uses and, in this case, for the coronavirus.
“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created an immediate need for antiviral therapy that can be transferred to the clinic urgently. This has led us to examine clinically approved drugs with established safety profiles, ”said Adolfo García-Sastre, who is a professor of microbiology and director of the Institute of Global Health and Emerging Pathogens at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai, according to a press release . García-Sastre is one of the leading researchers in the Science article.
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The researchers focused on how the virus uses human cells to survive and reproduce. “This research took us to a biological pathway, the eukaryotic translation machinery, where inhibition of the pathway showed significant antiviral activity in cell culture,” says Nevan Krogan, director of the Quantitative Bioscience Institute at UC San Francisco and one of the leading researchers in the study.
Today, we publish a new article @ScienceMagazine promising therapeutic for #SARS-CoV-2 infection: Plitidepsin (Aplidine). Plitidepsin, an eEF1A inhibitor, potently inhibits the virus in vitro and in vivo and is progressing in clinical trials to #Covid-19. https://t.co/3yotQcmwoq
– Krogan Lab (@KroganLab) January 25, 2021
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When they tested plitidepsin in their experiments, they found it to be effective on human and mouse cell lines. “Plitidepsin is an extremely potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2, but its most important strength is that it targets a host protein rather than a viral protein,” said Kris White, who is an assistant professor of microbiology at ISMMS and first author of the Science article in the press release. “This means that if plitidepsin is successful in treating COVID-19, the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be unable to gain resistance against it through mutation, which is a major concern with the spread of new variants of the United Kingdom and South Africa. “
Although the drug has to undergo further testing to see if it is effective against all variants, there is some promising evidence that it would still be a good treatment option. The group also tested the drug against the UK variant and found it to be effective, although that research has not yet been published and is available as a prepress.
The next steps would be for the drug to undergo clinical tests to test whether it is effective in treating people with active SARS-CoV-2 infection. “We need some new weapons in the arsenal,” said Krogan to San Francisco Chronicle. “This is by far the best thing we’ve seen.”
For updated information on COVID-19, check the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. For updated global case counts, check this page maintained by Johns Hopkins University or the COVID tracking project.
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