Prof. Yaakov Nachmias of the Hebrew University discovered that an existing drug makes it possible to break down the accumulation of fats created by the virus in health, thus preventing it from replicating itself • Meaning: suppression of the disease and prevention of infection: "Corona will turn cold" • Experts:
Has the way been found to turn the corona virus into a "cold only"?
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Prof. Yaakov Nachmias
Did a researcher from the Hebrew University find a way to defeat the corona and turn it into a "cold only"? Tonight (Tuesday) it was announced that Prof. Yaakov Nachmias, head of the Center for Bioengineering at the Hebrew University, in collaboration with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, has located a drug that has been on the market since the 1970s and is approved by the FDA. And the American drug), which is able - according to the findings of a laboratory experiment conducted by the researcher - to impair the mechanism of action of the corona virus that allows it to replicate itself and "take over" the lung cells. In other words, the drug suppresses the virus and prevents the disease from developing. It should be emphasized that the drug has not yet been tried on humans in Corona, but only under laboratory conditions.
Prof. Nachmias has discovered that the corona virus causes the accumulation of fat in lung cells in order to replicate itself, since viruses do not have the basic tools needed for replication and they must use the metabolic mechanisms of cells in the host body to multiply and complete their life cycle. He was able to follow the changes caused by the corona virus in the lung cells, and as a result he also located an existing drug that he claims, as stated, is suitable for neutralizing the action of the virus.
"Our analysis is the first comprehensive description of the human lung response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus," says Prof. Nachmias. "We show that the response of the lung to the virus is primarily metabolic and leads to a healthy accumulation of fat. Our data suggest that abnormal fat accumulation may establish critical aspects of COVID-19 development. "A substrate to develop. This led us to test which existing drugs could impair the virus' ability to replicate itself and curb the severity of the disease."
Following this finding, the researcher began looking for a drug suitable for impairing the metabolic process in question, and found a drug called "Phenobirt" , which was approved for use as early as 1975 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which treats high cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. Nahmias because it allowed lung cells to break down lipids (fats) quickly and block the ability of the corona virus to "snatch" the metabolism of lung cells, thus actively suppressing its replication - and consequently, the development of the disease.
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"Our discovery came just in time, because there are new indications that vaccines we are developing today may only protect patients for a few months. However, if our results are confirmed in a clinical trial, drug treatment could turn COVID-19 into a cold in a few months. ", Says Prof. Nachmias.
Prof. Benjamin Tanauber, Prof. Nachmias' research partner at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, adds, "Our findings may indeed significantly reduce the global burden of COVID-19."
"It will take time for the study to be proven, until then a vaccine may be found"
Israeli researchers who spoke with "Israel Today" expressed appreciation for the study, but nevertheless cooled the enthusiasm for the scientific breakthrough.
Professor Eitan Friedman, an expert in internal medicine and medical genetics and director of the oncology unit at Sheba Hospital, says that "although finding an old drug is a good thing, its effectiveness in humans and not in the laboratory still needs to be proven. I of course do not know the study and it is also glad that they found something like this, but the whole world is looking for old drugs and the problem is that after finding one has to take and try the drug en masse on humans to see that it does not harm patients or kill them. " "I assume that the time it takes to sell a drug is a little smaller than a completely new drug, but we still need clinical research on hundreds of patients."
"What will happen is that they will already find a vaccine for Corona before it is proven that this drug works, today there are already 19 companies that are in the second and third stages on the way to the vaccine. Pfizer is already in the third stage of the vaccine so it can come out with results in August or September. "A test of at least half a year. So of course it's nice and well done to the researchers but in my estimation until they clinically prove their results, something it takes at least half a year, there will already be a new vaccine for Corona."
Prof. Eidelman: The success of a drug in the laboratory is not proof of success in reality and even if it is, it will take at least six months or more before it is possible to start talking about production
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Professor Leonid Eidelman, former chairman of the Israel Medical Association and currently president of the World Medical Association. And says that “the corona virus has PR so every time there is a‘ noise ’, but in any case until the end of the year there will be no cure. "This is because after you find a drug like the phenofibrate, which works in a laboratory setting, you have to take it and test it on a living person - and there is a very big difference between the amount given against the virus in the lab and a patient study or a limited number of patients."
He added: "Even if this drug was found to be good in laboratory conditions, there are two more significant research phases that will take at best another six months at least, even before mass production begins. So I do not see any miracle drug this year that can be started."
Professor Ronen Ben-Ami, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Ichilov Hospital, adds that "not everything that works on cholesterol or triglycerides in the blood will work in the same dose on corona", and also emphasizes the need to "go into second and third phase Poisoning the patients and also giving good results on the ground. " However, he stressed that "the great advantage of such a drug is that it is no longer patented so that it can be mass-produced."