Covid Science: New antibody drug helps patients breathe; virus may insert genetic fragments into genetic code

Humanigen

10/05/2021 20:08

By Nancy Lapid
    May 10 (Reuters) - The following is a roundup of some of the
latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts
to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused
by the virus.

    New drug helps COVID-19 patients breathe on their own 
    When a new monoclonal antibody drug was added to treatments
being given to hospitalized COVID-19 patients who were still
breathing on their own, the drug - lenzilumab from Humanigen Inc
 HGEN.O  - significantly improved their odds of not needing
invasive mechanical ventilation, researchers found. The 540
patients in the randomized trial were already receiving a
variety of standard treatments. Half of them also received
lenzilumab via three intravenous infusions. In a paper posted on
Wednesday on medRxiv ahead of peer review, the research team
reported that patients in the lenzilumab group had a 54% better
chance of surviving without needing mechanical ventilation. In
patients receiving steroids and Gilead Sciences  GILD.O 
antiviral drug remdesivir, the addition of lenzilumab improved
survival without the need for mechanical ventilation by 92%. In
patients under age 85 whose immune system was in the early
stages of triggering a life-threatening inflammatory response,
lenzilumab improved the odds of ventilator-free survival by
nearly three-fold. Humanigen Chief Executive and study coauthor
Dr. Cameron Durrant said his team believes the results "indicate
a substantial improvement in COVID-19 treatment." (https://bit.ly/3tzY2YU)
    
    Virus might insert genetic fragments into patients' genetic
code
    A controversial new paper based on laboratory experiments
suggests a possible explanation for why some COVID-19 survivors
still test positive on viral RNA tests months later. Small
fragments of genetic instructions from the coronavirus might get
integrated into infected cells' genome. In the experiments, the
fragments that got inserted into the cell's genetic code came
mainly from the tail-end of the viral genome and cannot induce
the cell to create infectious virus. However, they might be
enough to trigger a positive result on COVID-19 PCR tests.
"There is no evidence that the process of these integrations
into the genome causes harm," said study leader Rudolf Jaenisch
of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT,
adding that the researchers believe that is very unlikely. Other
experts have said the findings, reported on Thursday in the
journal PNAS, likely reflect unintended effects of experimental
methods. The researchers have so far seen the phenomenon only in
test tubes. They are trying to find direct evidence for
SARS-CoV-2 sequences integrated into the genome in patients,
"but these experiments are technically very challenging,"
Jaenisch said. The vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech  PFE.N  BNTX.O>
and Moderna  MRNA.O  use messenger RNA to teach cells to make a
protein that resembles a site on the virus. But the cell quickly
breaks down the RNA and gets rid of it. "There is no evidence
that vaccine RNA could integrate and we believe that this is
highly unlikely," Jaenisch said. The high risks of complications
from COVID-19 "would be a very strong incentive to get the
vaccine," he said, citing negligible risk from the shots. (https://bit.ly/3tDs9P8)
    
    Home monitoring may keep COVID-19 patients out of hospital
    A home monitoring program for patients with COVID-19 may be
associated with lower odds of hospitalization, according to a
new study. At the Cleveland Clinic, doctors remotely monitored
3,975 COVID-19 patients for up to 14 days after a positive test.
In a study published on Thursday in JAMA Health Forum, they
compared patterns of healthcare use by these patients and by
3,221 similar patients who did not participate in the program. A
month after diagnosis, participants in the home monitoring
program were 27% less likely than nonparticipants to have been
hospitalized, although they had about a two-fold higher
likelihood of outpatient visits with the home monitoring
program. "As the pandemic continued and we learned more and more
about the outcomes of the program, and the natural course of
COVID infections in groups of patients, we were able to fine
tune the program to those with highest risk," said Dr. Anita
Misra-Hebert, director of the Clinic's Healthcare Delivery &
Implementation Science Center. The trial was not randomized and 
does not provide conclusive evidence of the program's value.
Instead, the researchers write, the results "support the need
for randomized trials to evaluate home monitoring programs ...
after COVID-19 diagnosis." (https://bit.ly/3uvHpyW;
https://bit.ly/3bdJg3L)
   
    Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl in an external browser for a
Reuters graphic on vaccines in development.

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Tracking the vaccine race    http://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/VACCINE-TRACKER/xegpbqnlovq/
COVID-19 Vaccination tracker    https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/vaccination-rollout-and-access/
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 (Reporting by Nancy Lapid, Christine Soares and Megan Brooks;
Editing by Bill Berkrot)
 ((Nancy.Lapid@thomsonreuters.com))