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'We're responding to this threat': University of Alberta works to help stop novel coronavirus

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The University of Alberta’s Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology says a drug once used in an Ebola outbreak could fight the novel coronavirus.

Remdesivir will be tested against the virus, known as 2019-nCoV, at the institute in Edmonton. Although there are regulatory hurdles related to getting samples of the coronavirus into the country, lab work has already begun, said D. Lorne Tyrrell, founding director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology.

“The prospects for developing an antivirus that can be used in patients is very good, and it may happen in the next few weeks and be readily available – some compounds that are already on the market for their viruses that might work (against) this virus,” said Tyrrell.

The institute is aiming to raise up to half a million dollars in funding, including rapid response grants from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, to go towards work on the novel coronavirus, Tyrrell said.

No one at the institute specializes in coronavirus at the moment. “That is going to change very quickly,” said Tom Hobman, professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the university, who noted that experts on coronaviruses have been recruited.

Since it can take years to get a brand new drug to market, researchers at the institute hope to find a drug that’s already been developed to fight the virus.

Remdesivir, one of the drugs they will test, was used in the emergency treatment of patients with Ebola virus infection in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The drug has shown “activity” in animal models against the viral pathogens MERS and SARS, which are coronaviruses that are structurally similar to the novel coronavirus, and has been used on a small number of patients.

“Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, it was just logical to ask whether this drug will work against the new coronavirus. The good thing was that it’s been tested, with tons of pre-clinical data, as well as in very difficult clinical settings,” said Matthias Götte, chair of the department of medical microbiology and immunology.

“We are interested, always, not in the entire virus, but in the little machines – the enzymes – that help the virus to propagate. As soon as you shut down the machine, you shut down the virus, and you have a drug,” said Götte. Now, the goal is to see if the mechanism works the same way against the novel coronavirus.

“If you’re trying to respond very quickly to an outbreak, you don’t really have the luxury of time to develop something completely new,” said Dave Evans, professor of medical microbiology and immunology.

The challenge with all drug development is making sure it works and is safe, so it’s a common approach to test drugs that are known to be safe on new viruses, said Evans.

“Viruses change, and new viruses are always emerging,” said Tyrrell.

Public health efforts to contain the novel coronavirus have been more challenging than in other outbreaks, including SARS, but the mortality rate is so far much lower, he said. There have been at least 40,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus worldwide, and 910 deaths, according to The World Health Organization’s latest numbers.

“(The institute) has been designed to look after major outbreaks in the world like this, and I just want you to know that we’re responding to this threat,” said Tyrrell.

lijohnson@postmedia.com

twitter.com/reportrix

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