Antiviral interferon
A clinical study organized by Dr. Jordan Feld of the Toronto Liver Disease Center as part of the University Health Network, Canada, showed the ability of an experimental antiviral drug to significantly accelerate recovery from COVID-19 patients who do not need hospitalization. This can be an important discovery for patients and will help to contain the spread of the virus until vaccination gains momentum.
Treatment with antiviral antibodies has great therapeutic potential, especially now that aggressive variants of the virus are being detected, spreading around the world, which are less sensitive to both vaccines and treatment.
In the new study, patients who received a single injection of peginterferon-lambda recovered four times more often within seven days compared to the placebo group. The effect was most pronounced in patients with the highest viral load. There was also a tendency to a faster resolution of respiratory symptoms in the peginterferon-lambda group.
Participants with a higher viral load (more than one million copies per ml) were much more likely to get rid of the infection with treatment than placebo: 79% in the treatment group compared to 38% in the placebo group; and the amount of virus decreased rapidly in all in the treatment group.
Rapid elimination of the virus is extremely important for infected patients, especially with a high viral load, since these cases are associated with a more severe disease and a higher risk of infecting other people.
This was a double–blind, randomized phase 2 clinical trial in which 60 people participated, 30 of whom received the drug and 30 received a placebo. The study was conducted from May to November 2020 in six outpatient centers.
Interferon-lambda is a protein produced by the body in response to viral infections. It activates a number of cellular pathways to destroy viruses.
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 interferes with the production of interferons, which is one of the ways to avoid the action of the body's immune system. The introduction of interferon-lambda activates many ways of destroying viruses in cells – this is due to the lack of resistance in "new strains" of the virus, which is a problem with some other methods of treatment.
Interferon-lambda differs from other interferons, because it attaches to a receptor that is present only in some tissues of the body – in the lungs, liver and intestines, it is there that it is most active. In the same organs, the virus that causes COVID-19 can multiply. The selective activity of interferon-lambda leads to much fewer side effects. In the study, patients receiving interferon-lambda and patients receiving placebo had comparable side effects.
Peginterferon-lambda, which was tested in this study, is a prolonged-acting version of interferon-lambda developed by EigerBioPharma. It can be injected once under the skin using an insulin syringe.
At the University of Toronto, Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University, studies of peginterferon-lambda are continuing in hospitalized patients, as well as for the prevention of infection in people who have come into contact with the sick.
Article by J.J.Feld et al. Peginterferon lambda for the treatment of patients with COVID-19: a phase 2, placebo-controlled randomized trial is published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on UHN materials: Peginterferon-lambda shows strong antiviral action to accelerate clearance of COVID-19.