Relief Therapeutics Holding AG (RLFTF)

[Bill B]

New drugs to fight COVID-19 developed (peptides)

The peptide-based drugs are now being tested in hamsters at France's pre-clinical and clinical research facility, IDMIT, with promising early results showing they are not toxic and have few side effects. The drugs are also stable and can be stored at room temperature—which would make them easy to distribute.

The study findings have been published overnight in the prestigious journal Nature Cell Discovery.

The two early intervention drugs target how human cells respond to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, instead of the virus itself.

The first peptide-based drug would be given pre-exposure to the virus and help boost the efficacy of vaccines, while the second drug would stop the spread of the virus in already infected cells.

The discovery of the peptide-based drugs was made possible after the researchers uncovered a previously unknown mode of entry that SARS-CoV-2 exploits to invade cells and cause COVID-19 disease.

Laboratory tests show the first peptide-based drug reduces infection by cloaking the ACE2 receptor protein on human cells. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein uses the ACE2 receptor to bind to and invade cells.

The virus then latches onto the cloaking peptides, which they mistake for human cells—preventing infection.

The lab tests have also shown that if the virus finds its way into cells, the second peptide-drug can block how the virus hijacks the host cell and replicates. It also boosts the immune system's ability to recognise the virus.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-05-drugs-covid-.html