Scientists Uncover Novel Antivirals Effective Against COVID

Researchers from the University of Alberta have pioneered a new type of medication that heightens the body's immune response to viruses. The drugs show great promise in treating and preventing future viral breakouts by boosting interferon production.

A group of researchers at the University of Alberta uncovered a novel category of drugs which look set to prevent or treat infections in the event of a future virus outbreak.

In their research paper, published in the scientific journal Nature, the team revealed that SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, stimulates a pathway in cells that inhibits the production of interferon, a crucial element of the immune response. The team positively tested a new category of antiviral drugs that increase interferon production to counteract this.

Tom Hobman, the leading author of the study and a professor of cell biology in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, clarified that interferon halts the production of more virus in infected cells by turning off the infected cell - often causing the cell's demise - and then acts on nearby cells to stop them from getting infected.

The research expands on previous work done by his team, which demonstrated how HIV has adapted to activate a specific pathway in cells to impede the body from creating peroxisomes, which are responsible for triggering interferon production. The researchers surmised that SARS-CoV-2, being another RNA virus, would behave similarly to disrupt the body's antiviral response.

The researchers tested 40 existing drugs that interact with the same pathway during the study. Most of these drugs were originally created and tested for cancer treatment, which often reacts positively to increased interferon production. Three of these drugs considerably lessened the volume of the virus found in the lungs, while one of them also effectively decreased inflammation and other clinical symptoms in mice.

"We observed a 10,000-fold decline in the production of the virus in a test tube in some instances. When we proceeded to mouse models, the tested drugs prevented severe weight loss and the mice recovered much faster," shared Hobman.

In the middle of a viral outbreak, people who may have been exposed or are showing early signs of the virus could take a four- to five-day drug regimen to increase their peroxisome levels and minimize the severity and transmission of the disease.

"The advantage of this approach is that no interferon is produced in the absence of a viral infection," Hobman notes. "We view these drugs as potentially being frontline drugs against emerging viruses."