Niclosamide Shows Efficacy Against COVID-19 In Animal Tests According To South Korean Pharmaceutical Giant Daewoong
Source: Niclosamide & COVID-19 Jun 13, 2020 4 years, 5 months, 20 hours, 49 minutes ago
Niclosamide & COVID-19: In a few preprint studies involving computational drug repurposing studies, niclosamide, an approved parasiticide drug was identified as a potential candidate.
https://aac.asm.org/content/early/2020/04/28/AAC.00819-20
Past studies had also showed that it did have efficacy against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in vitro studies and also another study published in Science Direct’s journal: Medical Hypotheses did indicate that it had a great potential as a drug candidate against COVID-19 but warranted further research first.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987720305892
Now Daewoong Pharmaceutical has found that its anti-parasitic drug niclosamide removed SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, from lungs in animal tests.
The pharmaceutical added that the drug completely cleared the infection in ferrets’ lung tissues and inhibited inflammation. The testing on ferrets was carried out for approximately three months.
The South Korean pharmaceutical company plans to advance the drug into clinical trials in July.
There three other companies are assessing niclosamide as a potential treatment for Covid-19, but Daewoong is the only company offering the drug in a non-oral formulation.
The company’s CEO, Jeon Seng-ho told Thailand Medical News, “Based on the positive outcome of the animal test, we plan to complete human trials and get approval of the Covid-19 treatment drug by the end of this year.”
Sometime in April this year, the company had formed a research and development collaboration with Institut Pasteur Korea to prepare for a clinical trial of niclosamide to treat Covid-19.
In initial drug-repositioning research, Institut Pasteur Korea observed that the drug’s antiviral efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in cell experiments was superior to the drugs currently undergoing clinical trials in South Korea and internationally.
But the drug could not maintain blood drug concentrations in the human body when administered orally, making it difficult for use as an actual treatment.
To circumvent this problem, Daewoong Therapeutics created a new formulation, named DWRX2003, in 2019 that maintains blood concentration of niclosamide.
Daewoong has been developing the formulation as a treatment for refractory lung disease in partnership with Korea-based non-clinical research institute Knotus.
DWRX2003 was found to improve respiratory distress by inhibiting lung tissue mucus secretion in animal tests and to block cytokine storm by suppressing inflammatory cell infiltration.
From the Institut Pasteur Korea research results, Daewoong decided to simultaneously develop DWRX2003 as a Covid-19 treatment.
https://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=8078
Purdue University in Indiana, US is also pursuing research on Niclo
samide but using solution which is a plant-based, highly potent nanoparticle called OHPP (octenylsuccinate hydroxypropyl phytoglycogen) that can solubilize and enable niclosamide. Niclosamide’s solubility can be increased more than 5,000 times with OHPP, and the drug is effectively released to cells.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378517317310487?via%3Dihub&_ga=2.194874990.2140037118.1592040280-1374671728.1592040280
Past research showed that in the laboratory the antiviral effect of niclosamide was much greater than that of chloroquine, remdesivir, or lopinavir or other drugs being considered to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://aac.asm.org/content/early/2020/04/28/AAC.00819-20
However solving the solubility issue is key to making niclosamide a real option. With this new strategy of using the nanoparticle, Purdue University is hoping to make oral dosing of niclosamide a more convenient route of fighting COVID-19.
To date, its seems that as antivirals against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, Ivermectin and and Niclosamide are turning to be more suitable prospective candidates but more research and more actual human clinical trials will be needed.Also note that in order to treat COVID-19 effectively, a multitude of drugs are needed besides antivirals ie anti-inflammatory drugs, anti-clotting drugs, NSAIDs and steroids (that do not cause issues with viral infections) and also antibiotics for secondary infections.
However no one should ever attempt to self-treat using any of these drugs without a licensed doctor’s supervision. These drugs can be toxic if taken wrongly and also if one has certain underlying medical conditions.
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