CARE

Since its launch in 2020, IMI project CARE has published multiple studies that are teaching us more about how COVID19 wreaks havoc, and how it might be defeated. ### Highlights include:

• A paper in Nature demonstrated that the antimalarial drug Hydroxychloroquine didn’t show any significant effect on viral load in non-human primates, whether alone or in combination with azithromycin.
• A paper in Cell flags up a genetic link to the likelihood of someone developing severe disease.
• Another paper shows on how SARS-CoV-2 indirectly damages the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels, lymph nodes and heart.
• CARE has also produced a new assay (a test used for analysis) for understanding antibody response in natural infection versus vaccination. The team has also shed new light on the durability of different antibodies against the virus.

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Researchers involved in IMI’s COVID project CARE have isolated a highly potent monoclonal antibody against SARS-CoV-2, one of the most powerful identified so far.###

Writing in the journal Cell Reports, the scientists from Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and EPFL explain that the monoclonal antibody targets the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and is effective at neutralising all variants of concern identified to date, including the delta variant.

In addition to its antiviral properties, the new antibody is designed to have a lasting effect in humans. A typical unaltered antibody provides protection for up to 3–4 weeks. But this new one can protect patients for 4–6 months. That makes it an interesting preventive-treatment option for unvaccinated, at-risk individuals or for vaccinated individuals who are unable to produce an immune response. Immunocompromised patients, organ transplant recipients and those suffering from certain kinds of cancer could be protected against SARS-CoV-2 by receiving antibody injections two or three times a year.

CHUV and EPFL now plan to build on these promising results in association with a start-up company which will perform clinical development and production of the antibody-containing drug, through cooperation and intellectual property agreements. Clinical trials of the drug should begin in late 2022.

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IMI’s COVID-19 therapeutics projects, launched in the wake of the pandemic outbreak, are starting to deliver results.###

The CARE consortium are trying to identify candidates among existing drugs that could be effective as treatments against COVID-19. In the latest project update, it was revealed that the screening of clinically-approved drugs in a SARS-CoV-2 cell-based assay did not provide a promising drug that can quickly be positioned towards clinical development, although some repurposed compounds are still undergoing pre-clinical proof of concept testing. They have identified advanced antibodies, compared to clinical antibodies, and their full profiling is ongoing. The first in vivo testing has started, with the first in human study to start in the second half of 2021.

IMPENTRI is tasked with repurposing and rapidly developing an existing therapy, imatinib, as a new and improved therapeutic approach for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2. Recruitment for the first clinical trial, a phase 2 trial of orally-administered imatinib in COVID-19 infected and hospitalised patients before they develop ARDS, has been completed. Recruitment for a second trial is set to commence.

MAD-CoV 2 is working on developing COVID-19 antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 by targeting the ACE2 receptor, the virus’s passageway into human cells. Several state-of-the-art advanced platforms for validation of antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 have been developed and some antivirals using this platform have been validated.

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