By Taylor Cripe
Utah State University antiviral researchers are hard at work helping the National Institutes of Health develop and test antiviral drugs for efficacy against COVID-19.
“We are working frantically, yet cautiously and carefully at the same time,” lead investigator Bart Tarbet said.
Tarbet, a research professor in USU’s Department of Veterinary Science, has worked in antiviral research for more than 25 years, and has worked on other antiviral projects such as the H1N1 “swine flu” strain.
So, are there currently any medications or drugs that work effectively against COVID-19? According to Tarbet, the short answer is no.
The best defense against the strain of virus causing the current pandemic, he said, is to allow physicians to safely treat their patient however they see fit. He added physicians should be able to prescribe their patients “off label” drugs, which means they can be used in a manner not specified by the Food and Drug administration.
However, Tarbet also warned that people should not be fooled by misinformation — for example, the rumors floating around about hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that has been much touted by President Donald Trump that some people have claimed might be a “cure” for COVID-19. “The hard truth is there is no evidence this is effective,” Tarbet said.
The researchers in USU’s biosafety laboratory are testing licensed drugs and antiviral compounds to see what can be used against this new strain of virus. According to Lynnette Harris, a professor for the USU College of Agricultural and Applied Sciences, it’s important to understand that antiviral compounds are different from antibiotics and vaccines. Antibiotics destroy disease-causing pathogens and vaccines prevent the disease before infection. Antiviral drugs just stop the virus from spreading in the body.
“We are basically taking drugs that have already been tested and approved and trying to find a faster way to get them to people,” Harris said.
In terms of what this looks like, Tarbet said to picture all developed drugs in a line “waiting for their turn.”
“If we find something that we think could be successful in the coronavirus fight, we simply move it to the front of line and test it more aggressively,” he said.
Tarbet and his colleagues are using hamsters and mice to test their drugs. The rodents have human DNA inserted in them to mimic symptoms in humans.
“We want people to understand we are using the animals humanely,” Tarbet said. “There is no perfect model to test for disease in humans. However over 25 years of research has shown rodent models are very successful.”
Harris agreed and added, “the greater good will be curing someone from a deadly disease.”
According to Tarbet, the rodents are being used to see how a drug will metabolize and break down in the human body. If a hamster has damage to its lungs because of the virus, and a drug improves its health, the researchers have higher confidence the same will be true for humans.
Neither Harris nor Tarbet would name the drugs currently being tested, and warned it would be a slow process.
“Finding the right drug is like trying to pinpoint a moving target,” Harris said.
Tarbet said the best bet is to work with drugs already in circulation because a brand new drug that is designed specifically for COVID-19 could take more than 10 years to be developed.
“We hope people understand we are working with something we have never encountered before,” he said. “The only thing I can compare it to is the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.”
Harris also understands people may be tempted to compare COVID-19 to influenza because the “typical flu” is what people are familiar with, but said the two diseases act very differently. She added misinformation on social media has only made these incorrect assertions worse.
Tarbet said this pandemic is a lesson in what happens when the conversation is run by politicians instead of scientists.
“The regular flu, which we have treatments for, is an upper respiratory illness,” Tarbet said. “However, this virus goes deep in the lungs and acts more like pneumonia. Very often this doesn’t get conveyed, and it doesn’t make sense because the virus doesn’t care about politics. We can’t have federal and state leaders saying different things.”
As to the question of whether there will be a resurgence in the fall, Tarbet said there is no way to know, but warns COVID-19 is not following migratory patterns like influenza.
“Influenza has a reservoir in migratory birds, which is why it occurs in different hemispheres at different parts of the year," he said. “However, this disease has found a safe reservoir in humans and doesn’t appear to be leaving anytime soon.”
Despite the gloomy outlook, Harris said people should not be discouraged and said researchers are working tirelessly to find a solution.
“We will get through this,” she said. “No one is more anxious to get this done than these researchers.”
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