World-first Covid-19 antiviral therapy targets virus in the body

PanARMENIAN.Net - Queensland researchers and a U.S. team have developed an antiviral therapy that has killed off the Covid-19 viral load in infected mice by 99.9%, ABC News reports.

Lead researcher Professor Nigel McMillan, from Griffith University, called it a "seek and destroy mission" where the therapy genetically targeted the potentially deadly virus.

The international team of scientists from the Menzies Health Institute Queensland and the U.S. research institute City of Hope began their collaborative research last April.

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.

The treatment could be available as early as 2023, depending on the outcomes of the next phase of clinical trials.