Israeli researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem said an FDA-approved drug for cholesterol could be effective in dramatically reducing the severe symptoms of the coronavirus.
they found how and existing drug, used for treating could be effective in significantly reducing the severity of coronavirus.
Prof. Ya’acov Nahmias from Hebrew University and scientists at Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Dr. Benjamin tenOever has found that a drug called “Fenofibrate” (brand name Tricor), used to treat excessive fat in blood cells – high cholesterol – could inhibit coronavirus ability to reproduce in lung cells. The drug makes COVID-19 feel like a common cold or totally eradicate it from the lungs.
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In the research, done over the past three months, in the Hebrew University’s MicroTissue Lab, was based on Nahmias’ hypothesis that COVID-19 needs an accumulation of fat inside the lung cells in order to reproduce itself. The drug enabled the lung cells to break down the fat in five days.
Prof. Nahmias told Globes, “Our discovery comes at just the right time because there are new indications that antibodies to the virus can only protect patients for several months, whereas if our results are confirmed in clinical trials, then within a few months treatment with our drug could be turning Covid-19 into a type of common cold.”
