Adobe Stock<\/a><\/em> , www.sciencedaily.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n An international team led by University of British Columbia researcher Dr. Josef Penninger has found a trial drug that effectively blocks the cellular door SARS-CoV-2 uses to infect its hosts. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The findings, published today in Cell<\/em>, hold promise as a \ntreatment capable of stopping early infection of the novel coronavirus \nthat, as of April 2, has affected more than 981,000 people and claimed \nthe lives of 50,000 people worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe study provides new insights into key aspects of SARS-CoV-2, the \nvirus that causes COVID-19, and its interactions on a cellular level, as\n well as how the virus can infect blood vessels and kidneys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We are hopeful our results have implications for the development of a\n novel drug for the treatment of this unprecedented pandemic,” says \nPenninger, professor in UBC’s faculty of medicine, director of the Life \nSciences Institute and the Canada 150 Research Chair in Functional \nGenetics at UBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This work stems from an amazing collaboration among academic \nresearchers and companies, including Dr. Ryan Conder’s gastrointestinal \ngroup at STEMCELL Technologies in Vancouver, Nuria Montserrat in Spain, \nDrs. Haibo Zhang and Art Slutsky from Toronto and especially Ali \nMirazimi’s infectious biology team in Sweden, who have been working \ntirelessly day and night for weeks to better understand the pathology of\n this disease and to provide breakthrough therapeutic options.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ACE2 — a protein on the surface of the cell membrane — is now at \ncentre-stage in this outbreak as the key receptor for the spike \nglycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2. In earlier work, Penninger and colleagues at\n the University of Toronto and the Institute of Molecular Biology in \nVienna first identified ACE2, and found that in living organisms, ACE2 \nis the key receptor for SARS, the viral respiratory illness recognized \nas a global threat in 2003. His laboratory also went on to link the \nprotein to both cardiovascular disease and lung failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread around the globe, the\n absence of a clinically proven antiviral therapy or a treatment \nspecifically targeting the critical SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 on a \nmolecular level has meant an empty arsenal for health care providers \nstruggling to treat severe cases of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Our new study provides very much needed direct evidence that a drug \n— called APN01 (human recombinant soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme\n 2 — hrsACE2) — soon to be tested in clinical trials by the European \nbiotech company Apeiron Biologics, is useful as an antiviral therapy for\n COVID-19,” says Dr. Art Slutsky, a scientist at the Keenan Research \nCentre for Biomedical Science of St. Michael’s Hospital and professor at\n the University of Toronto who is a collaborator on the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In cell cultures analyzed in the current study, hrsACE2 inhibited the\n coronavirus load by a factor of 1,000-5,000. In engineered replicas of \nhuman blood vessel and kidneys — organoids grown from human stem cells \n— the researchers demonstrated that the virus can directly infect and \nduplicate itself in these tissues. This provides important information \non the development of the disease and the fact that severe cases of \nCOVID-19 present with multi-organ failure and evidence of cardiovascular\n damage. Clinical grade hrsACE2 also reduced the SARS-CoV-2 infection in\n these engineered human tissues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Using organoids allows us to test in a very agile way treatments \nthat are already being used for other diseases, or that are close to \nbeing validated. In these moments in which time is short, human \norganoids save the time that we would spend to test a new drug in the \nhuman setting,” says N\u00faria Montserrat, ICREA professor at the Institute \nfor Bioengineering of Catalonia in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The virus causing COVID-19 is a close sibling to the first SARS \nvirus,” adds Penninger. “Our previous work has helped to rapidly \nidentify ACE2 as the entry gate for SARS-CoV-2, which explains a lot \nabout the disease. Now we know that a soluble form of ACE2 that catches \nthe virus away, could be indeed a very rational therapy that \nspecifically targets the gate the virus must take to infect us. There is\n hope for this horrible pandemic.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This research was supported in part by the Canadian federal \ngovernment through emergency funding focused on accelerating the \ndevelopment, testing, and implementation of measures to deal with the \nCOVID-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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