We have heard of a breakthrough in drug research against corona more often.
But a new preparation from the USA should have a decisive advantage.
Washington - A drug against
Corona
*
not only has to be effective, but also easy to administer.
Because in order to have a profound effect on the pandemic, as many people as possible must benefit from it.
Syringes can only be used by medical personnel - including the drug
Remdesivir
that has been used to
date
.
Researchers from the USA now report that they have
developed
an
active ingredient
that is taken orally.
It is said to have shown astonishing success in animal experiments and is now also being tested on humans.
Its name is: "MK-4482 / EIDD-2801" or "Molnupiravir".
It was originally intended to be developed as an anti-flu drug.
After experiments on animals, studies with humans are now starting.
Drug breakthrough against COVID-19: US university publishes promising study
Scientists
* published
the first results of the studies on animals in the
journal Nature Microbiology
.
Experiments with mice and guinea pigs have shown, therefore, is that the
coronavirus
*
much less quickly spread when the animals received the drug, according to the team led by Dr.
Robert Cox and Josef Wolf from Georgia State University in Atlanta.
If infected but treated animals were brought together with untreated animals, fewer
new infections were found
.
In addition, less
severe disease
courses were observed.
Similar results were also shown
in ferrets, where the
virus
spreads
mainly in the
mouth and nose area
.
Ferrets are particularly popular for studies related to the
coronavirus
because they generally transmit the virus very quickly.
Drug breakthrough against COVID-19: can the quarantine time be shortened?
This could mean that no more transmissions are possible within 24 hours of ingestion.
If these results can be confirmed, the
quarantine
time
could be
shortened.
It might even be possible to achieve one of the effects hoped for from the vaccination - namely,
to break the chains of
infection *
.
This development is already being noticed by doctors in Germany.
The medical journal cites the
study
from the
USA:
The magazine reports that there were no undesirable side effects in the treated animals.
(
kat
)
* Merkur.de and tz.de are part of the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editorial network.
List of rubric lists: © imago images / Stefan Trappe