Researchers at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health aided the development of a new antiviral drug meant to treat COVID-19 patients, which is now heading to testing in human clinical trials.

According to a study published Monday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, UNC virologists have been testing a new drug, called EIDD-2801, in collaboration with researchers at Vanderbilt University and Emory University, working to improve treatment of the new coronavirus by health care workers. The drug reportedly showed promise in mice test trials, reducing lung damage and weight loss in 12 to 24 hours after infection. The study also conducted tests on cultured human lung cells infected with SARS-CoV-2, the specific virus causing the COVID-19 disease, and is believed to have a longer window of opportunity to receive the drug.

In addition to reducing some of the most dangerous symptoms of COVID-19, the EIDD-2801 drug also is taken in pill form, which may increase its effectiveness as a treatment. According to the study, the orally available form includes the antiviral compound EIDD-1931, which also inhibits other coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2. The compound can be properly absorbed to travel to the lungs when taken in a pill form.

“This new drug not only has high potential for treating COVID-19 patients, but also appears effective for the treatment of other serious coronavirus infections,” wrote senior author Dr. Ralph Baric, whose lab at the Gillings School led the UNC side of research.

According to first author Timothy Sheahan, a Gillings School assistant professor of epidemiology and a collaborator in the Baric Lab, the drug could be used not only to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2, but also could control future outbreaks of other emerging coronaviruses if successful in trial.

“With three novel human coronaviruses emerging in the past 20 years, it is likely that we will continue to see more,” said Sheahan. “EIDD-2801 holds promise to not only treat COVID-19 patients today, but to treat new coronaviruses that may emerge in the future.”

The Baric Lab collaborated with the lab of Mark Denison, the Edward Claiborne Stahlman Professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and George Painter, director of the Emory Institute for Drug Development, where EIDD-2801 was discovered.

As of Monday, more than 1.2 million positive cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 307,000 confirmed cases in the United States. More than 67,000 deaths have been reported, according to the World Health Organization.

A release from UNC said clinical studies of the EIDD-2801 drug in humans are expected to begin later this spring.

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