Remdesivir worked against SARS and MERS… what about COVID-19?

Remdesivir, an antiviral drug originally developed in 2014 to treat the West African Ebola virus, has proven to be effective at treating severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus strains. However, will it work against the global panic-inducing 2019 novel Coronavirus? So far, studies say yes.

As recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, Remdesivir was tested on a Wuhan coronavirus-afflicted American. The drug was administered on the seventh day of illness, and the patient showed marked improvement within the next day, with their symptoms eventually disappearing altogether.

It’s not just research that supports Remdesivir, however. Assistant director-general of the World Health Organization Bruce Alyward recently spoke at a press conference in Beijing, saying, “There is only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy [against 2019-nCov] and that’s Remdesivir.”

While the drug has been around for a while, it wasn’t until recently that scientists discovered the actual mechanism behind it. A recent study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry showed that Remdesivir works by mimicking the building blocks of RNA synthesis. RNA is the genetic material that viruses are encoded with, and synthesis (creation via copying) is necessary for the virus to spread. Enzymes within the virus working to synthesize the genome mistake Remdesivir with the substances they are supposed to be using. As the drug is incorporated into the growing strand of RNA, the virus is no longer able to replicate correctly.

Gilead (the company that originally developed the drug compound) is currently collaborating with Chinese health officials to study treatment on sufferers of the disease with moderate to severe symptoms. They anticipate results by April. This, however, likely won’t be the end of the story of drugs to fight 2019-nCov warns Matthias Götte, virologist and lead author of the JBC article.

“It’s likely we’ll need more than one drug to properly fight emerging diseases like COVID-19, as we have with HIV and hepatitis C virus infections. Ideally, we will have a couple of drugs because certain strains could be resistant to certain treatments.

Matthias Götte, PhD ,Professor and Chair, Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Alberta

If you’d like to learn more about 2019-nCov as a virus, check out my previous post on the subject!

Original story and interview by Ryan O’Burne.

References

1. Gordon CJ, Tchesnokov EP, Feng JY, Porter DP, Gotte M. 2020. The antiviral compound remdesivir potently inhibits RNA-dependent RNA polymerase from Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Journal of Biological Chemistry.
2. O’Byrne R. 2020. Study reveals how drug meant for Ebola may also work against coronaviruses. Folio. University of Alberta.
3. Holshue ML, DeBolt C, Lindquist S, Lofy KH, Wiesman J, Bruce H, Spitters C, Ericson K, Wilkerson S, Tural A, Diaz G, Cohn A, Fox LA, Patel A, Gerber SI, Kim L, Tong S, Lu X, Lindstrom S, Pallansch MA, Weldon WC, Biggs HM, Uyeki TM, Pillai SK. 2020. First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine.
4. La Monica PR. 2020. Gilead Sciences drug remdesivir may help treat coronavirus symptoms, according to WHO. CNN Business. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.