AsianScientist (Jun. 21, 2018) – Scientists in Hong Kong have found that a combination of interferon and cyclosporine could be used to treat Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection. Their findings are published in Anti-Viral Research.
MERS-CoV remains a major problem in the Middle East, where infection is associated with a mortality rate of up to 39 percent. As it is related to the SARS virus, MERS is regarded by the World Health Organization as one of the more concerning threats to global public health.
In this study, researchers at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) used a human respiratory explant culture system to investigate drugs that could be used to treat MERS-CoV infections.
The explant culture system of the human respiratory tract was developed by Professor John Nicholls of the HKU Department of Pathology, in conjunction with Drs. Michael Chan and Renee Chan, and Professors Leo Poon and Malik Peiris at the School of Public Health, in 2005. The system provides a laboratory-based method for studying severe respiratory virus infections with a more faithful replication of disease mechanisms and treatment outcomes in humans.
Respiratory tissues are first removed from patients undergoing surgery at Queen Mary Hospital. These tissues are normally discarded but are now reserved with ethical approval for research. The WHO has accepted this system as a model for pandemic risk assessment of animal influenza virus infections, and the system has also been utilized by biotechnology companies to evaluate potential antiviral compounds.
The researchers demonstrated that a combination of two currently licensed agents—interferon and cyclosporine—was able to significantly inhibit virus replication and reduce tissue damage by the MERS-CoV in the human bronchus and lung. The reduction of virus replication was found to be associated with a strong induction of interferon-stimulated genes when the combination therapy was administered.
The article can be found at: Li et al. (2018) Effect of Interferon Alpha and Cyclosporine Treatment Separately and in Combination on Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Replication in a Human in-vitro and ex-vivo Culture Model.
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Source: University of Hong Kong.
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