Coronavirus treatment latest update: AstraZeneca's blood cancer drug shows great promise in COVID-19 treatment, ICAR claims herbal extracts may treat coronavirus patients

The novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc across the globe as the official toll of the positive coronavirus cases has touched the 7 million mark today. Even though scientists and medical experts are working round the clock to develop an effective treatment, cases are surging with a record rate every day. The good news is that the search for an effective coronavirus treatment is happening at break neck speed with many of these drugs and vaccines are already in clinical trial stages. We are listing down some of the most promising treatment plans for COVID-19 and their latest update:

Scientists are working on an antibody therapy treatment plan, which is touted as one of the most promising treatments, especially for those people who are in the early stages of coronavirus infection. According to the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, this treatment is the combination of two antibodies which help the body to neutralise the virus. The British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant claims that the antibody treatment plan will be crucial for elderlies and vulnerable as it will help those who don’t develop a good immune system response to the vaccine.

While there are a lot of researches and new developments being made with drugs like Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), Avigan, Avifavir, convulsive plasma therapy as well as antibody treatments, a lot of existing medicines are also being repurposed to test their efficasy. The latest drug which was approved for use by the drug regulatory board in India was "Ulinastatin", which is a drug used to treat sepsis and pancreatitis. Clinical trials for the same are set to start soon.

The pharmaceutical company has already tied up with the Oxford University in manufacturing the vaccine AZD1222 (formerly known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) and is all set to supply two billion doses of the same by the end of the year. The vaccine was developed by the Jenner and the Oxford Vaccine Group and trials have already begun in Brazil, which remains one of the worst-hit countries by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In another hopeful piece of news, a drug used to treat blood cancer manufactured by the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca showed promising results in treating severe COVID-19 cases. According to a study published in the science journal Science Immunology, it was found that among the 19 critically ill COVID patients (out of which 11 required oxygen), 8 were discharged after the usage of Calquence, which is a blood cancer drug manufactured by the company AstraZeneca. The generic name of this drug is Acalabrutinib and it is used for the treatment of Leukemia, a common type of blood cancer.

As per the study, over the course of 10-14 days treatment with Calquence “The drug improved oxygenation in a majority of patients, often within 1-3 days, and had no discernable toxicity.” It is also important to note that the usage of Acalabrutinib, also brought down the marks of inflammation in the body including C-reactive protein and IL-6. The drug targeted the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) which spikes the IL-6 protein. The excess production of IL-6 protein results in a ‘cytokine storm’ which is known to increase the mortality in severe COVID patients.

In yet another fascinating discovery, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has reportedly found a compound in herbal plants that may help in treating patients suffering from COVID-19. According to B N Tripathi, who is the deputy director-general (animal science) of the ICAR, these herbal plants which are being used in several Ayurvedic medicines in the country, gave the scientists at National Research Centre on Equines (NRCE) encouraging results against many viruses. The Scientists of the Hisar-based institute used the chicken coronavirus to test the efficacy and antiviral effects of a certain herbal extract. After finding encouraging results, medical experts believe that it has the potential to treat novel coronavirus after being repurposed.

In a major development, Chinese scientists are going to conduct phase 1 clinical trials for their monoclonal antibody treatment plan. The National Medical Products Administration gave the go-ahead to the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy for the COVID-19 antibody medicine to enter the clinical evaluation phase. Chinese medical experts and researchers consider it a major breakthrough as the monoclonal antibodies had shown a great promise in containing the growth of novel coronavirus in animal trails.

Monoclonal antibodies are produced in the laboratory and function as substitute antibodies in the human body. The Chinese scientists had published a research in Nature journal where they elaborated on how a neutralizing monoclonal antibody could help in significantly reducing the viral load in the respiratory tract of rhesus monkeys which were infected with COVID-19. As per the scientists, a virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibody can be touted as a promising candidate for the development of a coronavirus vaccine and medicine.

The Chinese biopharmaceutical company Shanghai Junshi Bioscience will begin an early-stage study in China to understand the effectivity of a potential antibody treatment to help those infected with the highly contagious novel coronavirus. The company procured the antibodies from the blood of recovered patients and developed the potential drug named ‘JS016’.

As per researchers, it may be costlier than the vaccine as it contains large amounts of protective proteins in one dose, making it suitable for elderlies and vulnerable people with weaker immunity.

Drug giant Eli Lilly has already dosed the volunteers with a potential antibody treatment to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. In this Phase 1 study of LY-CoV555 (the antibody treatment being developed by American drugmaker Eli Lilly in collaboration with AbCellera) a single dose was given to participants who were hospitalised for COVID-19 and the results are expected by the end of the June. The antibody treatment was developed in the span of three months by Lilly scientists after procuring it from the blood sample of one of the first US patients who recovered from COVID-19.