Researchers from Hebrew University and Mount Sinai Medical Center say found they what makes the virus so dangerous to human lung cells and how to eradicates the virus’ severity using common anti-cholesterol medicine
Israeli researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem said an FDA-approved drug for cholesterol could be effective in dramatically reducing the severe symptoms of the coronavirus.
they found how and existing drug, used for treating could be effective in significantly reducing the severity of coronavirus.
Prof. Ya’acov Nahmias from Hebrew University and scientists at Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Dr. Benjamin tenOever has found that a drug called “Fenofibrate” (brand name Tricor), used to treat excessive fat in blood cells – high cholesterol – could inhibit coronavirus ability to reproduce in lung cells. The drug makes COVID-19 feel like a common cold or totally eradicate it from the lungs.
In the research, done over the past three months, in the Hebrew University’s MicroTissue Lab, was based on Nahmias’ hypothesis that COVID-19 needs an accumulation of fat inside the lung cells in order to reproduce itself. The drug enabled the lung cells to break down the fat in five days.
Nahmias told the Jerusalem Post “By understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 (new coronavirus) controls our metabolism, we can wrestle back control from the virus and deprive it of the very resources it needs to survive”.
The researchers also found that high blood sugar and cholesterol levels are highly dangerous factors for coronavirus carriers, even without being diabetes.
Using samples of lung tissues in the lab, the drug was able to eradicate the virus almost completely. Its effectiveness will now be proven in human clinical trials.
Prof. Nahmias told Globes, “Our discovery comes at just the right time because there are new indications that antibodies to the virus can only protect patients for several months, whereas if our results are confirmed in clinical trials, then within a few months treatment with our drug could be turning Covid-19 into a type of common cold.”
Read more about: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Hebrew University, Pandemics
