New crown nemesis? U.S. scientists found 2 drugs to stop the new coronavirus

New crown nemesis? U.S. scientists found 2 drugs to stop the new coronavirus

Cephalexin (left) and nelfinavir (right) have been confirmed to prevent new coronary pneumonia, and the combined use of the two is more effective. (Photo/CDC)

The new crown pneumonia COVID-19 continues to claim lives all over the world and infect millions of people. Although several vaccines have been available and their preventive effects have been proven, do those infected patients have better medicines? The good news is that scientists have found a good way to find specific drugs for the new crown, and based on this method, they have found two more effective drugs.

Medical news (Medical x Press) reported that COVID-19 is quite difficult. It mutates too quickly and too much, which makes the vaccine not 100% effective. It also shows that we now need more effective vaccines than ever before. Antiviral therapy, if vaccines are the "shield" against new coronary pneumonia, then antiviral drugs are the "long spear" against new coronary pneumonia.

In view of this demand, multinational research teams in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom have launched a plan to "effectively develop antiviral therapy". The researchers first established an experimental system to screen which drugs can help prevent infections. . The system uses a cell line called "VeroE6/TMPRSS2", which was developed by Dr. Takeda of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan last year. It is a modified version designed to test the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV). -2) A good carrier. Simply put, it is a "bait" that the new coronavirus can attack.

In order to determine whether the drug is helpful to fight the new coronavirus infection, we only need to mix VeroE6/TMPRSS2 with the test drug, and then put the new coronavirus in, if the drug is effective, then VeroE6/TMPRSS2 will remain the same, if not, VeroE6/TMPRSS2 Will be destroyed.

Researchers use this experimental system to screen some drugs that have been approved for clinical use, such as Remdesivir, or the hydrochloroquine recommended by Trump, and the results are the same as the actual effect: Desivir is effective, but hydrochloroquine is ineffective.

Now there is an exciting result. The researchers used this method to find two more drugs that can effectively inhibit the new coronavirus. One of them is cephalexin (Cefalexin, also translated as Pioneermycin IV, blessing). Xin), and the second is Nelfinavir, which is used to treat HIV infection.

Although cephalexin is an antibiotic specifically designed to fight bacteria, it has little effect on viruses in theory, but experiments have found that it can prevent the virus from binding to the protein on the cell membrane to inhibit the virus from entering the cell, acting like a gatekeeper. As for nelfinavir, it prevents the virus from replicating in the cell by inhibiting the protein that the virus relies on.

Regardless of their antiviral principles, scientists have also found that mixing them together (commonly known as cocktail therapy) may also have an effect. Computer models predict that the combined treatment of cephalexin/nelfinavir can speed up the clearance of SARS-CoV-2 from the lungs of patients by 4.9 days.

However, the above is still the situation in the laboratory, and the combination of these two drugs enters the medical system. However, these findings can prove that the entry of cephalosporin/nelfinavir into clinical treatment is reasonable. In view of the increasing number of deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic, cephalexin/nelfinavir therapy is likely to develop into a clinical life-saving treatment option within a few days.

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From the Encyclopedia of Dayu，Penguin