03/09/2021 9:00
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/09/2021 9:00 AM
In the framework of the fight against the coronavirus, preliminary results were known on
the use of a drug to reduce the viral load of people infected with Covid 19
.
The pilot study is being carried out at the Austral University Hospital and at the Clínica del Pilar in Ciudadela.
The drug that is being tested in people infected with coronavirus is
nitazoxanide
, a broad-spectrum anti-infective that, according to
Clarín
Marcelo Silva, a hepatologist and principal investigator of the study, has already been used to treat influenza, viral hepatitis. and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
For the research,
135 mild or moderate patients
“between
18 and 80 years old
, some of them with comorbidities,”
were recruited
, according to Silva.
“One group was given the drug and the other, placebo.
The relationship was two with an active drug and one with a placebo
.
So far, we have the results of 45 cases, ”says the specialist, who is president of the Latin American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (ALEH).
“The patients with Covid 19 were medicated for 14 days.
By day 7 we found, in many cases, a reduction in viral load by at least 35%.
We saw it in 50% of those who received the drug versus 10% of those who received placebo
”, Silva says about the progress of the study that has already been published on the international site www.clinicaltrials.gov.
For Silva, "the most relevant data is that it could be shown that there is an activity of this drug on the coronavirus."
However, he asks for “prudence” since “it is a small sample and more studies must be carried out”.
The reduction of the viral load, says Silva, would potentially have two important benefits: "On the one hand, the disease would be
less severe
in the organism of the infected patient and, on the other, the carrier would have
less chance of infecting
other individuals".
"It could serve as one more tool, it is just the tip of the iceberg," he adds.
This study, sponsored by the Roemmers laboratory that markets the drug in Argentina, complements the results of another similar study recently published in the
European Respiratory Journal
.
This work also aimed to demonstrate the antiviral activity of nitazoxanide in patients with SARS-COV-2 infection and had satisfactory results.
According to clinicaltrials.gov, there are more than 20 ongoing studies around the world looking for evidence on the antiviral efficacy of the molecule in relation to coronavirus.
From Roemmers they affirm that they are already thinking of carrying out a broader investigation.
"This is a pilot, exploratory study designed to
test a concept
and see if the hypothesis that the researchers had worked. In the first interim analysis that was done with data from about a third of the participants,
the result was found to be positive
, so the next step might not be to complete this study, but to go directly to the design of a more ambitious one, which recruits
a larger number of patients (3 to 4 times higher)
and includes more variables to study than the reduction of viral load, "says Marcelo Garbini, Roemmers medical director.
"The design of this second investigation is not yet defined, but we hope to determine it in the short term and take all the steps so that it can be started as soon as possible, aware of the
need for more robust scientific evidence
of the potential benefits of promising antivirals against the coronavirus, as is the case with nitazoxanide, "adds Garbini.
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