Quote:
Originally Posted by RWebb
remedsivir was developed for ebola, so you might think it could be improved for this virus
OTOH, the mode of action suggests not, and that side effects will always be present
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I read an interesting article, will try to find it, where electron microscopy was used to in essence film remdesivir (actually its metabolite) in action versus the SARS2 virus in cells. I only skimmed the article, but what I took away is that the drug is effective at getting itself incorporated in the RNA created by SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, which renders the RNA then ineffective at replicating in the cell. The problem is that each unit (don’t know the term) of drug that gets incorporated is then “out of action”, and there is only a certain amount of drug that can be infused into the patient (I don’t know what the adverse effect threshold is, but there must be one) and then only some of that drug is present in the areas attacked by the virus (respiratory system etc). So if the drug is given to a patient who already has advanced disease and high viral load, it can only do so much. You’d think that, like many anti-virals, remedsivir might work better if dosed much earlier in the infection. But the limited supply and need for IV make that tough - unless you’re a VIP.
Here
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/30/science.abc1560