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Atlanta –
In addition to the many positive vaccine reports over the past few days, scientists in the US are now encouraging with another positive news about the crowns: They claim to have developed a drug that prevents the transmission of the virus. It would be a real breakthrough!
Scientists at Georgia State University in Atlanta in the US are apparently on the trail of a big deal: according to the Italian news agency Ansa, they have developed an antiviral drug that may interfere with the transmission of the coronavirus in the journal Nature Microbiology. Special feature: The active ingredient can be taken orally.
Corona: Molnupiravir can prevent virus transmission
The agent, which has so far only been tested in ferrets, inhibits the reproduction of the virus in the body within 24 hours. So it can’t spread all over the body.
According to the researchers, the data can also be transferred to humans – the first studies with volunteers are already underway. This would mean that people infected with the corona are no longer contagious after taking a medicine called molnupiravir within 24 hours at the latest.
According to the researchers, this could have multiple effects: it would prevent the serious course of the disease in infected people, it would drastically shorten the infectious phase, thereby quickly controlling local epidemics and reducing the emotional and socioeconomic consequences of quarantine.
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The drug is “the first orally available drug that can rapidly block the transmission of Sars-CoV-2,” said Richard Plemper, one of the researchers involved in the study. Molnupiravir may have “changed the game.”
This is how scientists tested the drug
But how does it work exactly? Researchers locked up several ferrets suffering from Covid-19 along with healthy tribesmen. Some diseased animals received molnupiravir, others placebo.
Subsequent tests showed that ferrets treated with molnupiravir did not transmit the disease, but untreated animals infected others with the virus.
Molnupiravir was already used for testing during the corona pandemic
The drug said to have similar effects to Remdesivir was originally developed to treat flu conditions. However, as early as April 2020, a study showed that molnupiravir could prevent and reduce serious lung damage in mice infected with the coronavirus.
The product of the manufacturer Ridgeback Biotherapeutics is currently in Phase II / III clinical trials. It will likely be until the middle of next year before it goes through all the necessary hurdles for approval and can be used.
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