Experimental cancer drugs could help hospital-acquired coronavirus recover more quickly, researchers believe.
Israeli academics said today that 29 out of 30 patients with a moderate to severe case of Covid treated with EXO-CD24 completed a full recovery within five days.
More human tests are now needed to confirm that the introduced drug – designed as a medicine to fight ovarian cancer – is actually working.
The study did not compare the drug with placebo, meaning that scientists cannot say with certainty that the drug was behind the rapid recovery of patients.
EXO-CD24 cognitive cancer drug has been reported as the treatment for coronavirus by Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, following a successful clinical trial. Pictured: Israeli woman receives Pfizer-BioNtech coronavirus vaccine at vaccine center in Tel Aviv on Tuesday
However, data show that the average coronavirus patient requiring hospital treatment spends up to three weeks in bed.
Scientists administered a dose of the drug to 30 patients with severe or moderate Covid’s disease.
It is not clear how old the patients were but data show that younger patients are significantly more likely to die from coronavirus and recover more quickly.
Twenty-nine showed significant improvement within three or five days. It is unclear whether the patients were also receiving drugs or other treatment.
What is EXO-CD24?
Professor Nadir Arber of Ichilov Medical Center at Tel Aviv Integrated Cancer Prevention Center spent years developing EXO-CD24 for cancer treatment before it was diagnosed on coronavirus patients
EXO-CD24 is an experimental cancer drug originally developed to treat ovarian cancer.
It is absorbed as a gas and acts locally on the lungs.
The drug uses small transport bags called exosomes that close substances between cells to deliver a protein called CD24.
This protein helps regulate the body’s immune response, reducing the number of cytokines released.
Cytokines are produced by the body to fight infection, but too much of them can lead to fatal hyperinflation, which occurs in the most severe cases of coronavirus.
Professor Nadir Arber of the Ichilov Integrated Cancer Prevention Center told the Israeli Times: ‘The preparation is taken once a day for a few minutes, for five days.
‘The preparation is directed directly to the heart of the storm – the lungs – so unlike other formulas… which selectively restrict specific cytokine, or work extensively but cause many side effects, EXO -CD24 locally administered, widely operated and without side effects. ‘
The symptoms of thirty patients also improved but outside the five-day window, Israeli media reported.
The sample size of the test was also too low to draw any worthy conclusions regarding the efficacy of the drug. The data were not published in a journal.
Professor Nadir Arber, of the Ichilov Integrated Cancer Prevention Center, spent years developing the drug for ovarian cancer before testing coronavirus patients.
The EXO-CD24 is taken once every five days and is relatively cheap, according to Professor Arber, but has not revealed for sure how much it will cost.
It was first developed to treat ovarian cancer before researchers considered its potential for coronavirus treatment.
It works by reducing the immune system’s excessive migration to the virus.
A coronavirus can trigger a violent immune response that degrades the body’s major organs called cytokine.
The drug uses small transport bags called exosomes that block substances between cells to deliver a protein called CD24 directly to the lungs.
Researcher Shiran Shapira told the Israeli Times: ‘This protein is located on the surface of cells and plays an important and vital role in regulating the immune system.’
Dr Arber told Israeli news site Arutz Sheva: ‘Even if the vaccines do not work, and even if there are no new mutations, one way or another, the coronavirus will stay with us.
That’s why we developed this special medicine: EXO-CD24. This is unique.
It has been about half a year from the time the idea was born and the technologies were created, to the first human experiments conducted and the completion of phase one of the experiment. ‘
The researchers plan to study the drug on hundreds of patients and compare the results with placebo.
Israel announced today that it will abolish lockout measures but keep the international airport and land borders closed after a small drop in the spread of coronavirus cases.
‘The government has accepted a proposal from the prime minister and health minister to reduce lockout measures from 7am on Sunday,’ their offices said in a joint statement.
Despite being named the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, Israel continues to record an average daily of 6,500 new Covid-19 cases, down from about 7,000 last week, official figures show.
A nationwide national lockout from Dec. 27 was extended four times to counteract the level of infection, but January was the deadliest month with more than 1,000 Covid deaths.
According to the latest statistics from the health ministry, Israel has recorded more than 675,000 cases of Covid-19, including 5,019 deaths.