New research published in Nature study shows that a drug for treating leprosy was repurposed to treat COVID19.
The study found that the leprosy drug, known as clofazimine, holds antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2 and thus preventing sever COVID19 inflammatory responses.
"Clofazimine is an ideal candidate for a COVID-19 treatment. It is safe, affordable, easy to make, taken as a pill and can be made globally available," says co-senior author Sumit Chanda, Ph.D., professor and director of the Immunity and Pathogenesis Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. "We hope to test clofazimine in a Phase 2 clinical trial as soon as possible for people who test positive for COVID-19 but are not hospitalized. Since there is currently no outpatient treatment available for these individuals, clofazimine may help reduce the impact of the disease, which is particularly important now as we see new variants of the virus emerge and against which the current vaccines appear less efficacious."
Learn more about the mechanism of action:
"The animals that received clofazimine had less lung damage and lower viral load, especially when receiving the drug before infection," says co-senior author Ren Sun, Ph.D., professor at the University of Hong Kong and distinguished professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). "Besides inhibiting the virus, there are indications that the drug also regulates the host response to the virus, which provides better control of the infection and inflammation."
Source: Science Daily
