Remdesivir Effective On Monkeys As COVID-19 Treatment
REMDESIVIR – A recent preliminary clinical trial on Remdesivir shows how effective it is as a treatment for COVID-19.
Scientists infected two groups of six rhesus macaque Monkeys with the SARS-COV2. This is the new coronavirus strain that causes COVID-19. As such, the monkeys developed respiratory infections.
According to a report from Newsweek, the scientists gave the animals the drug intravenously or a control substance without the drug. Furthermore, this dosing schedule duplicates what human COVID-19 patients are given during clinical trials.
Afterward, the team would regularly check on the monkeys, there symptoms, and how much of the virus they were carrying. A week later, the monkeys were euthanized and had autopsies performed on them.
Following the autopsies, they found out that the group of monkeys given the drug showed no signs of the respiratory disease. Additionally, scans showed their lungs had less substances connected to pneumonia.
However, the virus level wasn’t reduced in the nose, throat, or rectal swabs from animals treated with Remdesivir after 12 hours. But after 1-4 days, the virus level was lowered in throat swabs.
As per the report, this signifies the effectiveness of the drug in treating the disease. But, the scientists noted that due to the acute nature of the virus in the macaques, ” it is hard to directly translate the timing of treatment used to corresponding disease stages in humans”.
Currently, there is still no specific cure for COVID-19. However, some companies have already planned to start clinical trials for their drug treatments against the virus.
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