New Drug to Fight COVID-19 Discovered

A new drug, 4-Phenylbutiric acid (4-PBA) that could prevent or mitigate the consequences derived from infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, has been discovered by scientists. The study on animal models showed that the drug curbed mortality caused by respiratory failure derived from cellular stress, stated research published in the journal Cytokine and Growth Factors Review.

In severe cases of COVID-19, the inflammatory process identified caused an uncontrolled and excessive release of cytokines, which triggered vascular hyperpermeability and multi-organ failure.

"When cells are stressed by infection, they call the cytokines, and the more stressed they are, the more persistent they become, provoking this uncontrolled inflammation. Hence, one possible treatment for Covid-19 is to reduce cellular stress," explained one of the lead researchers Ivan Duran, Professor at University of Malaga in Spain.

Repurposing the 4-PBA anti-stress drug modulated cellular stress, which is present in diseases like diabetes, aging, or cancer, which in turn are classified as COVID-19 risk factors.

4-PBA anti-stress drug has already been approved for clinical use against other diseases and, hence, easy to apply clinically.

The BiP (endoplasmic reticulum resident protein, the stress blood marker) levels, apart from determining the efficacy of 4-PBA treatment, could serve as early indicators of COVID-19 risk groups.

Source-Medindia