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An experimental oral antiviral drug completely suppressed transmission of the coronavirus within 24 hours, a new study suggests.
The drugs, called molnupiravir, stop the virus from multiplying, thus preventing it from spreading throughout the body.
Researchers found that the drug prevented ferrets infected with COVID-19 from spreading to each other, but those who did not receive the drug spread the disease.
The team, at Georgia State University, says that if the data can be translated in humans, it means COVID-19 patients receiving the treatment could become non-infectious within a day.
Researchers infected six ferrets with coronavirus and treated three of them with an investigational antiviral drug, molnupiravir, then housed two uninfected ferrets each with a sick animal
After testing daily for eight days, none of the ferrets caged (blue bar) with animals treated with the drug (pink bar) became ill.
Within four days, all ferrets that were around sick animals (red line) receiving placebo (black line) contracted COVID-19
“This is the first demonstration of an orally available drug to rapidly block the transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” said Dr. Richard Plemper, professor at the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State.
‘[Molnupiravir] could be a game-changer.
Molnupiravir is an antiviral drug that was developed at Emory University, Atlanta, by its pharmaceutical innovation company, Drug Innovation Ventures at Emory (DRIVE), which was licensed by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, which partnered with Merck & Co.
It was originally intended to treat influenza and prevents the virus from copying itself by creating errors during viral RNA replication.
An April 2020 study found that molnupiravir can prevent and reduce severe lung damage in mice infected with coronavirus.
The drug is currently in Phase II / III clinical trials where it is tested at three different doses every 12 hours for five days in patients with COVID-19, but data is not expected to be available until at least May 2021.
For the new study, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, the team tested the ability of molnupiravir to stop the spread of the virus in ferrets.
“ We believe ferrets are a relevant transmission model because they easily spread SARS-CoV-2, but generally do not develop serious disease, which closely resembles the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in young adults. ‘ ‘said co-lead author Dr Robert Cox, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia State.
Researchers infected six ferrets with SARS-CoV-2 and treated three of them with the drug when they started shedding the virus from their noses.
Then, the team took 12 uninfected ferrets and two each housed in a cage with one of the sick animals.
Ferrets were tested every day for eight days. None of the ferrets that were in cages with treated animals contracted the virus.
However, on the fourth day, all of the ferrets that were caged with those not treated with the drug became ill.
As cases and deaths continue to rise across the United States, stopping the community’s spread of the virus will be essential to stem the pandemic until vaccines are widely available.
‘We noted early on that [molnupiravir] has broad spectrum activity against respiratory RNA viruses and that treating infected animals orally with the drug reduces the amount of virus particles excreted by several orders of magnitude, dramatically reducing transmission, ”Plemper said.
‘These properties have made [molnupiravir] a powerful candidate for the pharmacological control of COVID-19 ”.
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