The Medicine Against RNA-dependent Viruses has Passed the First Phase of Clinical Trials

08 April 2020

GMP News

Scientists of the Center for Pharmaceutical and Chemical Technologies of Ural Federal University together with colleagues from the Institute of Organic Synthesis named after I. Ya. Postovsky UrB RAS synthesized and tested a drug effective against new strains of RNA-dependent viruses. The preliminary name of the drug is “Triazide”. The drug has already passed preclinical trials and the first phase of a clinical study (healthy volunteers) and has shown efficacy and safety (in general, trials began in May 2016). The next step is the second stage of clinical trials – checking the drug for patients. Unlike Triazavirin, which is now used in the fight against coronavirus, Triazid has a slightly different structure and other feedstock. Most likely, they will release the drug in capsules.

According to the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses, to date, scientists have counted 41 types of RNA viruses in coronavirus.The essence of the “survival” of viruses is gene transfer. Viruses transfer their DNA or RNA from organism to organism, changing and thus adapting to new conditions. The virus itself consists of a hereditary DNA / RNA molecule and a protein coat (in the influenza virus, it is hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, and H1N1, H5N1 and others are distinguished by their structure). However, it is difficult to call him alive; it is something like an “organism at the edge of life”. Different drugs block the virus at different stages of its introduction into the cell and spread in the body.

“How the virus works: it approaches the cell, clings, introduces itself, sheds the protein coat, exposes the DNA or RNA molecule, as the next molecule is built on the matrix, and then they exit the cell like a host of new virions. Then they attack the next cell, and so the infection develops,” says Vladimir Rusinov, Head of the Department of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry and the Laboratory of Organic Synthesis, Ural Federal University of Physics and Technology, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. – In the case of coronaviruses, the virus parasitizes on the cells lining the bronchi and lungs. They break through cells, followed by a bacterial attack. This causes pneumonia, then there is a fungal infection. In general, everything is quite complicated. ”

In the fight against Covid-19, doctors use universal RNA-dependent antiviral spectrum drugs, including Triazavirin. So, Triazavirin is prescribed to patients of the 40th Yekaterinburg hospital. The effectiveness of Triazavirin against Covid-19 is being studied by virologists in China: in January, the manufacturing plant Medsintez sent the humanitarian party Triazavirin to China. Chinese experts plan to complete the tests by the end of May.

In addition, in the development of Ural scientists there are several more new drugs that are at different stages of advancement. So, at the preclinical stage, a new release form of Triazavirin is an injection solution. It is intended for patients unable to take the drug in capsules. In collaboration with colleagues from Novosibirsk, scientists made the Triazavirin aerosol (for inhalation), which is better absorbed and more effective on the lungs.

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