Ebselen Drug For COVID-19 Treatment Could Be Effective: New Study
At the University of Chicago, Professor Juan de Pablo and his colleagues have claimed in a new study that a synthetic drug currently being investigated for use in the treatment of hearing loss and bipolar disease- Ebselen, can be effective against SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the Covid-19 infection.
The study was conducted using state of the art computer simulations and is published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. However, to prove the drug’s effects on coronavirus patients, no clinical trials have been done so far.
Ebselen, an organoselenium compound is shown to have cytoprotective (protects healthy cells), anti-inflammatory, antioxidant properties, and also proposed to have neuroprotective (protective of brain cells) properties. The cellular damage caused due to reactive oxygen species is prevented by ebselen.
For the drug’s effect on tinnitus, noise-induced hearing loss, bipolar disorder, and Meniere’s disease, the drug is being investigated and it is also suggested to be effective against multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
The safety of this drug in humans has been shown in previous clinical studies. For the treatment of Meniere’s disease, the FDA gave fast track designation to a drug containing ebselen, SPI-1005, in 2019.
The
protease enzyme Mpro is considered to be an ideal target site for drugs as earlier studies have shown that it is resistant to mutations. Recently, it was seen that disulfiram, the drug used to treat alcoholism can bind to and inactivate Mpro, indicated by a group of researchers in Russia. This helps contain the infection as it keeps the virus from making copies of itself.In a similar way, Ebselen works by identifying and binding to Mpro’s active site. Ebselen can also bind at other sites on the enzyme apart from the active site of Mpro and it makes the original substrate unable to bind to the active sites as this changes the structure of the active sites.
Mpro is a coronavirus protease involved in the replication of SARS-CoV-2, and the entry of the virus into host cells, and this drug is shown to bind to the coronavirus protease Mpro.
The researchers state that for the treatment of coronavirus infection, this study points to a potential new category of drugs, the Mpro inhibitors. SARS-CoV-2 proteases such as 3CLpro and PLpro are targetted by drugs proposed for COVID-19 treatment like lopinavir or ritonavir.
The researchers said in a news release that as a new vulnerability in the COVID-19 causing virus is revealed, these findings are particularly important as these can be explored further in order to fight the pandemic.
More drugs can be repurposed for COVID-19 treatment that has the potential to affect SARS-CoV-2 are been investigated by the team. Dr. Pablo announced that soon, information about another possible drug candidate for the coronavirus disease will be released by the team.
Source
Ebselen Drug For COVID-19 Treatment Could Be Effective: New Study
