Ecological discovery: A substance extracted from algae prevents cells from contracting corona virus Israel today

Researchers at Tel Aviv University, led by Prof. Alex Gulberg of the School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, found that the substance ulvan, extracted from edible marine algae, prevents the infection of living cells with the corona virus.

"This is a cheap natural substance for production," say the researchers, "which may help solve a serious problem: the spread of the corona in large populations, especially in developing countries, which do not have access to the vaccine - a situation that claims many victims and even accelerates the creation of new variants."

However, they note, "the study is in its early stages, but we hope the discovery will be used in the future to develop an accessible and effective anti-infection drug in Corona."

Either way, many companies in the field have already expressed interest in the new invention.

"We believe in the ability of this groundbreaking technology to help in the global fight against the corona virus."

Said the Primor Cohen Foundation, CEO of Ramot, Tel Aviv University's commercialization company, which has filed several patent applications to protect the technology and its application.

"Today it is already clear that the corona vaccine, despite its great effectiveness, will not be able to stop the spread of the plague worldwide," explains Prof. Golberg.

"Even in advanced countries, where most of the population is vaccinated, they understand that as long as billions that do not have access to the vaccine are not addressed, the virus is expected to develop more and more variants that may be vaccine-resistant - and the war in Corona will continue.

"For this reason it is very important, for the sake of all mankind, to find a cheap and accessible solution that will suit even weak populations in developing countries. In our lab we decided to test a substance we produced in previous studies .

The growth laboratory at the School of Environmental and Earth Sciences, Photo: Tel Aviv University

"The findings are encouraging - but there is a lot of work ahead of us"

To test their hypothesis, the researchers grew ulva algae in the laboratory, extracted the elven and sent it to the Southern Research Institute - an institute in Alabama, USA, which specializes in infectious diseases - where the researchers built a cell model to test the activity produced in Prof. Golberg's laboratory. Of an animal (it was not reported what) were exposed to the corona virus as well as to the elven - and it was found that in the presence of the elven the virus does not enter the cells.In other words: elven prevents the cells from infecting the corona virus.

According to the researchers, "The findings are very encouraging but they are still just 'signs of oil', and a lot of work is still ahead of us. How, if at all, does it work in humans. "

The study involved Shai Sheffer, Arthur Rubin and Alexander Tsimodnov from Gulberg's laboratory;

Prof. Michael Guzin from the School of Chemistry and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Tel Aviv University, as well as researchers from the Hebrew University, the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, and the Southern Research Institute in the USA. The article on the study was published in the journal PeerJ.