A new treatment for coronavirus being developed at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv has successfully completed phase 1 testing and appears to have helped several moderate to severe cases of COVID-19 recover quickly from the disease, the hospital said on Friday.
Saluting a “major breakthrough”, the hospital said Prof. EXO-CD24 Nadir Arber was administered to 30 patients whose conditions were moderate or worse, and all 30 recovered – 29 of them in three to five days.
The drug fights the cytokine storm – a potentially lethal immune reaction to coronavirus infection that is believed to be responsible for most deaths associated with the disease.
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He uses exosomes – small carrier bags that carry materials between cells – to deliver a protein called CD24 to the lungs, which Arber spent decades researching.
“This protein is located on the surface of cells and has a well-known and important role in regulating the immune system,” said researcher Shiran Shapira, from Arber’s laboratory.
The protein helps to calm the immune system and contain the storm.
In this November 19, 2020 archive photo, ventilation tubes are attached to a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles (AP Photo / Jae C. Hong,)
“The preparation is inhaled once a day for a few minutes, for five days,” said Arber. “The preparation is aimed directly at the heart of the storm – the lungs – so, unlike other formulas … which selectively restrict a certain cytokine, or operate widely, but cause many serious side effects, EXO-CD24 is administered locally, works widely and without side effects. ”
The drug will now go on to other testing phases, but hospital officials already considered it a possible game changer in the fight against the COVID-19 disease.
Ichilov director Roni Gamzu, a former coronavirus czar, said the research “is advanced and sophisticated and can save patients with coronavirus. The results of the phase 1 trial are excellent and give everyone confidence in the method [Arber] has been researching in his laboratory for many years. ”
He added: “I am proud that in Ichilov we are … possibly bringing a blue and white medicine to a terrible global pandemic.”
