(WWJ) Researchers at the University of Michigan are studying several potential COVID-19 therapies... including one that is already at your local pharmacy.
A new groundbreaking study reveals several drug contenders, already in use for other purposes, that have been shown to block or reduce infection by SARS-CoV2 — the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 — in cells.
The team validated 17 candidate compounds, and researches said nine of them showed anti-viral activity at reasonable doses.
Among those nine was lactoferrin, a protein found in human breastmilk that is also available over the counter as a dietary supplement derived from cow’s milk.
“We found lactoferrin had remarkable efficacy for preventing infection, working better than anything else we observed,” said Jonathan Sexton, Ph.D., assistant professor of Internal Medicine at the U-M Medical School and one of the study's senior authors.
What remains to be seen is if, or how well it may work as a treatment.
The team will soon be launching clinical trials of the compound to examine its ability to reduce viral loads and inflammation in COVID patients.
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“Traditionally, the drug development process takes a decade — and we just don’t have a decade. The therapies we discovered are well positioned for phase 2 clinical trials because their safety has already been established," Sexton said.
He noted that early data suggest that lactoferrin may be effective against newer COVID variants, including the highly transmissible Delta variant, as well.
This work is one of the first major discoveries to come out of the new U-M Center for Drug Repurposing, which was established in November 2019, just as the pandemic began. The Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research, also known as MICHR, with partners across campus, launched the Center with the goal of finding potential therapeutics for the thousands of human diseases for which there is no treatment.
“Repurposing existing therapeutic interventions in the clinical setting has many advantages that result in significantly less time from discovery to clinical use, including documented safety profiles, reduced regulatory burden, and substantial cost savings,” said George A. Mashour, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of MICHR and founder/executive sponsor of the Center for Drug Repurposing.
Get more information about the study at THIS LINK.
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