Last summer, Synairgen levels increased by 300% in a study that showed its inhaled form of interferon beta-1a developed to treat COVID-19 decreased the chance of patients progressing to a severe form of the virus.
But there was a major shadow hanging over the results: interferon is known to increase levels of ACE2 cell surface protein, which serves as an entry point for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This raised fears that interferon-based treatments would eventually fail in the treatment of coronavirus.
Now, researchers at the University of Southampton, who are working with Synairgen to develop his drug, have found that interferon raises levels of a short form of ACE2 that prevents SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells. In fact, it can have a protective effect, the team reported in the journal Nature Genetics.
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The short form of ACE2 discovered by British researchers does not have a specific binding site from which SARS-CoV-2 must enter healthy cells. Because this short version of the protein increases in response to interferons – but not SARS-CoV-2 – researchers believe it is somehow involved in the body’s natural immune response to viruses.
“We were thrilled to discover a new form of ACE2 and became even more interested when we did [realized] which could be protective against SARS-CoV-2 in the airways, rather than an entry point for infection, “said Professor Jane Lucas, MD, Ph.D., University of Southampton, in a statement. Among the study’s co-authors, Donna Davies, PhD, and Ratko Djukanovic, MD, are co-founders and shareholders of Synairgen, which was dropped from the university.
Investors applauded Synairgen when preliminary data from his study of 101 patients showed that his interferon drug, SNG001, reduced the risk of severe COVID-19 progression by 79% compared to placebo. An update of these results raised the company’s shares by another 30% in November, when the company reported that 75% of patients taking SNG001 showed a clinical improvement on day 15/16, as measured by a key World Health Organization scale. Health.
The discovery of short ACE2 could have implications for more than Synairgen, the authors argued in the new study. The researchers’ ability to distinguish between the two versions of the protein could generate ideas for more sophisticated treatments for coronavirus, they said.
The team led by the University of Southampton is now planning further studies to investigate the implications of the short ACE2 on COVID-19 management.
In December, Synairgen announced that it had begun a phase 3 study with SNG001 in the UK and that the FDA had granted it the status of a fast drug and approved it for US studies.