A team of researchers from the Higher Scientific Research Council (CSIC) has made an exciting advance in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus by discovering that the combination of two drugs, ribavirin and remdesivir, is especially effective in eliminating rapid of the virus. Ribavirin is known for its ability to combat several viruses, while remdesivir has already been approved specifically to treat COVID-19.
The new study has been published in the British Journal of Pharmacology and shows promising strategies to develop more effective treatments, especially for vulnerable patients who have difficulty getting rid of the virus. Celia Perales, CSIC researcher at the National Center for Biotechnology and collaborator at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation, comments that “although currently SARS-CoV-2 infection is not as serious as at the beginning of the pandemic, in vulnerable patients “like the immunosuppressed, it is important to have new combinations of drugs to combat it.”
A therapy that interrupts the ability of the coronavirus to replicate
The team has also explored how these drugs work at a molecular level. Using advanced sequencing techniques, they discovered that the drugs cause an increase in mutations in the virus’s genome, eventually disrupting its ability to replicate, a process known as “lethal mutagenesis.”
“In vulnerable patients such as immunosuppressed patients, it is important to have new drug combinations to combat the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus”
Esteban Domingo, CSIC researcher at the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center (CBM-CSIC-UAM), explained that they have identified that “these drugs manage to collapse the replication of the virus by inducing an excess of mutations in its genome that affect the viral viability. “Lethal mutagenesis” is a broad-spectrum antiviral strategy that has already been used successfully on other rapidly changing RNA viruses.
This achievement is the result of collaboration between several CSIC institutes, including the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center and the Barcelona Institute of Molecular Biology, where they investigate how the virus replicates at the molecular level. The collaboration with the Jiménez Díaz Foundation Health Research Institute also raises the possibility of taking these findings from the laboratory to clinical practice, offering new hope for the treatment of COVID-19.
Source: Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC)
