World-first COVID-19 antiviral therapy developed in Brisbane and US targets virus in the body - ABC NewsSome ground-breaking research being done in the Land of Oz, as always!
The article has some interesting aspects and comments. One is that we will have to live with this virus forever now."He said the treatment could be available as early as 2023, depending on the outcomes of the next phase of clinical trials.
"Remember this virus is not going away — we are going to be living with it forever now," Professor McMillan said.
Co-lead researcher Professor Kevin Morris said the treatment was designed to work on all betacoronaviruses such as the original SARS virus (SARS-CoV-1) as well as SARS-CoV-2 and MERS.
"And any new variants that may arise in the future because it targets ultra-conserved regions in the virus's genome," Professor Morris said."
Essentially, it is a process which attacks the virus and stops it from spreading rather than stopping you getting the virus. So if given early enough, you can be assured of not dying from the virus. Amazing developments in this country of ours with the help of our cousins in US!"They used a "next-generation" viral approach using gene-silencing RNA technology to attack the virus genome directly, which stops the virus spreading.
"It causes the genome to be destroyed and the virus can't grow anymore — so we inject the nanoparticles and they go and find the virus and destroy it just like a heat-seeking missile," Professor McMillan said.
"This is the first time we have been able to package this up as a particle, send it through the blood stream to attack the virus."
"It travels to the lungs and it will actually enter all the lung cells, but only in the lung cells with the virus will it destroy — normal cells are completely unharmed by this treatment."
