Researchers at Georgia State University claim to have found what could be a treatment for the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, university researchers announced they discovered that Auranofin, a drug treatment approved by the Food and Drug Administration for rheumatoid arthritis, could be an effective therapeutic drug for COVID-19 patients.
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“Drug repurposing is the fastest way to get a treatment for SARS-CoV-2 because it’s already been established that these medicines are safe to use in humans,” said Mukesh Kumar, lead author of the study and an assistant university professor of biology.
Viruses, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, require host cells in order to spread within humans. Auranofin, according to the study, would reduce inflammation and limit the virus’s ability to spread. “This shows that the drug not only could inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2, mitigating the infection, but also reduce the associated lung damage that often leads to severe respiratory distress and even death,” Kumar said.
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The study claims that, within 48 hours, the “amount of virus within the cells dropped by 95 percent” and reduced lung damage associated with the disease.
President Trump has repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, as a potential therapeutic treatment for those testing positive for COVID-19.
There is no established treatment or cure for the coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said more “definitive studies” are needed on hydroxychloroquine before it or others could be considered “knockout drugs.”
Recently released real-world data show that approximately 87.6% of women and 84.7% of men treated with the drug have survived after being diagnosed with the coronavirus.
