COVID patients treated with hepatitis drug four times more likely to have cleared infection quickly

COVID-19 patients treated with an investigational hepatitis drug were able to clear the virus faster, a new study suggests.

People with mild symptoms have been given peginterferon-lambda, an artificial form of a natural protein that helps control respiratory disease by calling cells of the immune system to the site of infection.

The researchers found that patients who were injected with the drug were four times more likely to have an undetectable viral load within seven days compared to a group treated with a placebo.

The team, from the Toronto Center for Liver Disease, University Health Network, say the results provide evidence that the drug could help curb the spread of the virus in the community during the vaccine rollout.

The researchers gave half of a group of 60 patients with coronavirus an injection of an experimental hepatitis drug and the other half a placebo. Patients who received the drug were four times more likely to have undetectable loads on day seven than the placebo group (above)

Peginterferon-lambda is an artificial form of a naturally occurring protein that calls immune cells to attack a virus and is primarily used to treat hepatitis (above)

“ This treatment has great therapeutic potential, especially at this time, as we are seeing aggressive variants of the virus spreading around the world that are less responsive to vaccines and treatment with antibodies, ” Dr Jordan said. Feld, liver specialist at the Toronto Center for Liver Disease.

Peginterferon-lambda has been described in the past as issuing a “call to troops” order so that immune cells can fight disease.

The drug’s receptors are found in the linings of the lungs and intestines – the main areas where COVID-19 attacks – and in the liver.

Most of the experimental treatments are being studied in hospitalized patients, but researchers want to see if peginterferon-lambda can help avoid hospitalization.

For the study, published in the journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, the team examined 60 COVID-19 outpatients, those who did not require hospitalization between May 2020 and November 2020 at six centers.

Half of the patients were randomized to receive either an injection of peginterferon-lambda or a placebo within seven days of symptom onset or within seven days of the first positive sample if asymptomatic.

One week after the injection, 80% of participants in the peginterferon-lambda group had undetectable viral loads, compared to 63% in the placebo group.

After checking the initial viral load, patients who received the drug were four times more likely to have undetectable loads on day 7 than the control group.

Treatment was even more apparent in participants with higher viral levels, greater than one million copies per milliliter.

Fifteen of 19 patients in the peginterferon-lambda group with these elevated levels had undetectable loads by day seven, compared to six of 16 in the placebo group.

“People who were treated quickly cleared the virus, and the effect was most pronounced in those who had the highest viral levels,” said Dr Feld.

“We also saw a trend for faster improvement in respiratory symptoms in the treatment group.

Of the 60 patients, five went to the emergency room, including four in the placebo group and one in the treatment group.

Feld said the drug helps reduce virus levels quickly, which prevents people from getting worse or spreading the disease to others.

“If we can quickly reduce the level of the virus, people are less likely to spread the infection to others and we may even be able to shorten the time it takes to isolate,” he said.