Nat Microbiol: An oral drug used to treat influenza virus infection, Molnupiravir, may be effective in blocking the spread of SARS-CoV-2

5, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal Nature Microbiology, scientists from Georgia State University and others found that a new antiviral drug called Mmolnupiravir (MK-4482/EIDD-2801) could be used to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection or to completely suppress the spread of the virus within 24 hours.
researcher Richard Plemper said: 'This study is the first to show that the use of commonly used oral drugs can quickly block the spread and spread of SARS-CoV-2, and that blocking the widespread spread of SARS-CoV-2 in communities before mass vaccination is available is critical to effectively managing COVID-19 and mitigating the catastrophic consequences of a pandemic.'
Photo Source: NIAID Integrated Research Facility, Fort Detrick, Maryland. Because the drug, called Mmolnupiravir, is available orally, patients can start treatment as early as possible, with potentially triple the benefits of inhibiting the progression of the patient's condition to severe COVID-19, while also shortening its infection period, thereby reducing the emotional and social economic losses caused by long-term isolation and effectively suppressing local outbreaks.
researchers point out that Molnupiravir is able to produce broad-spectrum activity against respiratory RNA virus infections, and that taking the drug orally to treat infected animals or to reduce the level of particles that fall off the virus by several orders of magnitude can significantly reduce the spread and infection rate of the virus;
study, researchers redirected the drug Mmolnupiravir to help fight SARS-CoV-2, and they used ferret models to test the drug's effects in curbing the spread of the virus. Robert Cox, a postdoctoral researcher at
, points out that we think ferrets can be used as a related propagation model because they can easily spread the spread of SARS-CoV-2, but most animal models do not progress to severe COVID-19, which may be very similar to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in young people.
researchers used SARS-CoV-2 to infect ferrets, and when they began to shed the virus from the nasal cavity, they began treating ferret models with Molnupiravir.
when the researchers placed these infected ferrets in the same cage as those that had not come into contact with the virus, the ferrets that had been exposed to the virus did not become infected.
, all the animals (ferrets) that received the placebo were infected.
the results could be translated into human studies, the use of Mmolnupiravir drugs to treat patients with COVID-19 could make them less contagious within 24 hours, the researchers said.
() Original source: Cox, R.M., Wolf, J.D. and Plemper, R.K. Therapeutically managed ribonucleoside analogue MK-4482/EIDD-2801 blocks SARS-CoV-2 transmission in ferrets. Nat Microbiol (2020). doi:10.1038/s41564-020-00835-2。