Covid-19 Updates

Potential Covid medication found among tapeworm drugs: Study

A group of medications long prescribed to treat tapeworm has inspired a compound that shows two-pronged effectiveness against COVID-19 in laboratory studies, according to a new publication appearing online in the journal ACS Infectious Disease.

The compound, part of a class of molecules called salicylanilides, was designed in the laboratory of Professor Kim Janda, PhD, the Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Professor of Chemistry and director of the Worm Institute for Research and Medicine at Scripps Research, in La Jolla, CA.

“It has been known for 10 or 15 years that salicylanilides work against certain viruses,” Janda says. “However, they tend to be gut-restricted and can have toxicity issues.”

Janda’s compound overcomes both issues, in mouse and cell-based tests, acting as both an antiviral and an anti-inflammatory drug-like compound, with properties that auger well for its use in pill form.

Salicylanilides were first discovered in Germany in the 1950s and used to address worm infections in cattle. Versions including the drug niclosamide are used in animals and humans today to treat tapeworm. They have also been studied for anticancer and antimicrobial properties.
In addition, No. 11 helped quiet potentially toxic inflammation in the research animals, Janda says, which could be important for treating acute respiratory distress associated with life-threatening COVID infections. It reduced levels of interleukin 6, a signaling protein which is a key contributor of inflammation typically found in advanced stages of COVID-19.

Better medications against COVID-19 are urgently needed, as highly infectious new variants drive renewed surges of illness and death globally. But Janda says salicylanilide No. 11 was created long before the pandemic.

After fighting an unpleasant bacterial infection called Clostridioides difficile about 10 years ago, he saw a clear need for better treatment options. Multi-drug-resistant strains of C. difficile have become a major cause of drug-resistant diarrheal disease outbreaks in health care institutions globally, and among people using antibiotics. As director of the Worm Institute, which focused on parasitic infections, Janda was very familiar with salicylanilides, and knew of their antimicrobial properties. His laboratory created a “library” of modified salicylanilides several of which showed strong efficacy against C. difficile, and the collection was subsequently licensed by pharmaceutical firm Sorrento Therapeutics. Among them was salicylanilide 11.

“Salicylanilide 11 actually was placed on the back burner in my laboratory against C. difficile because it’s not as gut-restricted as we would like it to be,” Janda says. “But salicylanilide 11 has got a lot of really positive things going for it as a potential therapeutic for COVID.

In other news – Former Miss SA Liesl Laurie wins battle with COVID-19

Liesl Laurie is super excited as she finally won over COVID-19 which she battled with alongside her fiancé, Dr Musa for weeks.

Liesl Laurie

Taking to social media, the former Miss SA made it known that she tested negative and she’s grateful for being alive. Learn more

Source: outbreaknewstoday