The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal and researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre(UNMC) have identified ‘Rapamycin’ as a drug that can be repurposed to treat Covid-19.

Currentlybeing used for patients having undergone organ transplantation and certain cancer patients, Rapamycin and its analogues are commonly available in India and abroad.

The research was conducted by Dr Amjad Husain, Principal Scientist, and Chief Executive Officer, Innovation and Incubation Center for Entrepreneurship (IICE), IISER Bhopal; and Dr Siddappa N Byrareddy, Associate Professor, Pharmacology, and Vice-Chair, Research, UNMC.

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In a peer-reviewed paper published in the journal, Chemico-Biological Interactions , the researchers showed that the biochemical working of this drug molecule points to its promise in the treatment of Covid-19.

Amjad Husain, in a statement, said: “The development of a new drug is time-consuming and cannot be relied on as a solution in combating the immediate pandemic. Drug repurposing is an attractive solution, where, an existing drug used to treat another related or unrelated ailment may be tested against Covid-19.”

An example of such a repurposed drug is Remdesivir, which was originally developed to treat Hepatitis C infection. The drug has shown limited success in treating Covid-19 patients. Identification of more such drugs is important, given the scale of the pandemic. Rapamycin works differently from Remdesivir. While the latter targets the virus itself, Rapamycin targets the host proteins and may resist the infection.

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“Using repurposed drug such as Rapamycin that targets mTOR, a central molecule affecting multiple signalling pathways, may yield a significant clinical benefit for the treatment of Covid-19,” added Dr Husain.

One of the main challenges in developing antiviral drugs for Covid-19 has been the extensive mutations that the virus undergoes. In addition, Rapamycin is known to reduce obesity through various pathways and this can help in mitigating the severity of Covid-19 effects in obese people.

Furthermore, Rapamycin is known to induce autophagy, a cellular recycling process that helps in eliminating the damaged proteins and delaying ageing. Given the connection between age and Covid mortality with more fatalities in older people, the anti-ageing properties of Rapamycin can have protective effects against Covid-10-induced morbidities.

Recently, another study published in The Lancet-Healthy Longevity, proposed the potential of Rapamycin analogues (rapalogs) to enhance resilience against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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