Experts have cautiously welcomed the results of a small trial of a coronavirus treatment that has dramatically reduced the odds of hospitalised patients progressing to the most severe form of the disease. The Daily Telegraph reports that the treatment – interferon beta, a protein produced by the body when it gets a viral infection – was shown to reduce the likelihood of a patient in hospital requiring ventilation by 79%
The treatment, which is already used for other lung conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is inhaled through a nebuliser and stimulates the lung’s immune response to fight the virus. However, the report says, experts are urging caution as the study involved only a small number of patients and they said bigger trials would be unlikely to produce such impressive results. Commentators have also urged Synairgen, the Southampton-based biotech that led the trial, to publish the full data as soon as possible.
Tom Wilkinson, professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Southampton and chief investigator, said he was delighted that the treatment – called SNG001 – produced such positive results. “The results confirm our belief that interferon beta, a widely known drug that, by injection, has been approved for use in a number of other indications, has huge potential as an inhaled drug to be able to restore the lung’s immune response, enhancing protection, accelerating recovery and countering the impact of SARS-CoV-2 virus.”
The double-blind randomised-control trial recruited 101 patients from nine specialist sites across England. It found that the odds of developing severe disease – for example requiring ventilation or dying – over the 16-day study period were reduced by 79% for patients receiving the treatment compared to those on placebo.
Patients who received the treatment were also more than twice as likely to recover than those receiving the placebo. They also reported less breathlessness, a common symptom of severe coronavirus.
Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, who did not take part in the study, said the trial, although small, could be a “game changer”. But he added: “It would be good to see the full results once presented and peer-reviewed to make sure they are robust and the trial conduct was rigorous.
“Also, with small numbers comes less certainty on the true level of benefit, or whether benefits vary between people with differing risk characteristics. Such work would require a larger trial but, even so, these results are very exciting.”
Stephen Evans, professor of pharmaco-epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “It is clear that this seems to be a promising treatment for the early stages of COVID-19 but should definitely be regarded as preliminary – it is a phase II study, though it has some aspects of a phase III trial in that it considers clinical outcomes and is randomised with a placebo control. From this point of view the study has definite strengths."
Dr Nick Cammack, COVID-19 therapeutics accelerator lead at Wellcome, said: “Having a wide range of effective COVID-19 treatments is essential. Once the results reported by Synairgen are confirmed, then the signs look promising and could be a significant step forward in COVID-19 treatment research. But, we should remain cautious with our expectations until we see the data published in full."
[link url="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/protein-treatment-cuts-chances-patients-ending-ventilator-small/?WT.mc_id=e_DM1268688&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_GHS_New_Daily&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_GHS_New_Daily20200721&utm_campaign=DM1268688"]Full report in The Daily Telegraph[/link]