Among the few things that, until today, this time of global pandemic due to the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus left in print for the scientific world is that it is better to walk on a field of research already known and promote proactive and complementary partnerships .
Even more so when what governs the career of science that tirelessly pursues the cure for COVID-19 is the so-called scientific fast track, a road still winding and gravel, but nevertheless it is projected clear and with several hands back and forth , like on the best highways. And whose ultimate goal is not to skip the steps of the rigor that inhabits the scientific nature, but to speed up the times to stop the damage caused by the plague.
In that sense, the Yale School of Medicine and the AI Therapeutics biopharmaceutical company formed an almost perfect alliance, according to the times. And to account for their stimulating “scientific pairing” yesterday, they published the successful results of a Phase II in vitro clinical study - doors inside the laboratory - with the use of the candidate drug LAM-002A (apilimod dimesylate, according to its chemical name. ) to treat newly diagnosed patients with COVID-19.
The Phase II randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of LAM-002A at decreasing viral load. Known as LAM-002A (apilimod), the drug has a proven safety record. Preliminary in vitro research has shown that it can block cellular entry and trafficking of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of COVID-19.
The study will also investigate measures of clinical efficacy, such as mortality, hospitalization, and oxygen saturation. And now that the study must be verified in humans, up to 142 people with ambulatory COVID-19 will be part of the test.
The candidate drug - selected from many - LAM-002A is a highly selective PIKfyve kinase inhibitor. The active component of the drug candidate is expected to allow its combination with other therapies, particularly with drugs targeting protein or viral functions.
With encouraging results from the preliminary stage, Yale's best contribution is their brilliant minds, and leadership in this specific study was assumed by renowned Dr. Murat Gunel, president of neurosurgery at Yale University. And on the side of the biopharma AI Therapeutics laboratory, its best contribution is its innovative view of medicines, almost of an ecological matrix: the reuse of what is already known and proven.
Gunel de Yale, professor of genetics and neurosciences, is in turn the main scientific advisor to AI Therapeutics, and who promoted a scientific logic where the company identifies new therapies using an artificial intelligence algorithm designed to unite drugs with new indications.
This is how the idea that the reuse of known drugs could significantly accelerate the deployment of new therapies for COVID-19 comes into force.
0 Comments