[AmsterdamUMC] Researchers at Amsterdam UMC have discovered why patients become seriously ill after being infected with the coronavirus. They identified that aberrant antibody responses are the main cause of becoming critically ill. In addition, they identified a drug that can counteract this derailed immune response, which may be used to treat seriously ill Covid patients in the ICU. This drug is already FDA approved for treatment of particular autoimmune diseases.
The Amsterdam UMC has a lot of immunological expertise, and with that background knowledge in mind drugs were selected that specifically inhibit the inflammatory response caused by the abnormal antibodies, while leaving the rest of the immune system intact. "The drug we studied, fostamatinib, ensures that the immune cells in the lungs no longer react to the abnormal antibodies, but still react to the virus. This specificity makes this drug a promising candidate for treating seriously ill covid patients."
rtwt, including the original paper, which is linked here. |