Doctors recommend. Scientists from Russia and China discussed antiviral drugs: Society: Russia: Lenta.ru
In the era of a pandemic, there are practically no people who doubt the danger of viral infectious diseases. Within the framework of which the IV Russian-Chinese symposium on infectious diseases was held, an international forum was held through the exchange of knowledge and experience. What are the leading virologists, clinicians, infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists discussing – in the material “Lenta.ru”.
It is believed that drugs active against the COVID-19 virus still do not exist. All this time, scientists have been studying already known antiviral drugs in all parameters: the mechanism of action on the virus, preclinical and clinical efficacy. At the conference, scientists shared their experience and scientific achievements in studying the effectiveness of the drug umifenovir, known as arbidol, which is actively used by the practice in China and Russia.
Arbidol is the brainchild of Soviet scientists from the Moscow All-Union Scientific Research Chemical and Pharmaceutical named after V.I. Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Research Institute of Medical Radiology of the Academy of Medical Sciences in Obninsk and Leningrad Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology named after V.I. Pasteur. In the original copyright certificate No. 1685933, arbidol is recognized as a remedy for the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory viral infections, influenza A and B. It has a favorable safety profile.
When COVID-19 hit the world, this widespread method of treating a new infection, first in China and then in Russia. In the 13th version of the methods of recommendations for the treatment and prevention of the new coronavirus infection COVID-19 of the Ministry of Health of Russia, published in November this year, it is recommended for the treatment of patients on an outpatient basis and for prophylaxis in both healthy and at risk groups. Approved its use for prophylaxis in case of contact with a patient with coronavirus infection, including for medical workers and for those who are being treated at home. And in Chinese it has been used since the first days of the pandemic.
In order to study the effectiveness of antiviral drugs in the treatment of COVID-19, a large-scale pharmacoepidemiological study “EGIDA-2020” was completed in September 2021. The Russians analyzed 1277 case histories of patients with a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 who underwent inpatient treatment in hospitals in 17 regions of the Russian Federation. It has been established that arbidol has advantages over other antiviral drugs in terms of influencing the duration of the disease and the rate of virus elimination. Arbidol reduced the duration of symptoms of intoxication, which includes headache, weakness, chills and cough in patients infected with coronavirus.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, no one knew how to treat this disease. The first steps were based on the experience of combating other coronaviruses, such as SARS-CoV, which causes SARS and MERS-CoV, ”said the chief freelance specialist in infectious diseases of the Russian Ministry of Health, Deputy Director for Research and Innovative Development of the Phthisiopulmonology Research Center. and infectious diseases Vladimir Chulanov. According to him, the recommendations are continuously updated with new scientific data. In addition to the Russian umifenovir, the list of drugs recommended for the treatment of the new infection includes Japanese favipiravir and American remdesivir.
Scientists have studied the mechanism of action of umifenovir. It turned out that the surface protein of the influenza virus has a structural behavior with the S-protein SARS-CoV2, which allows the use of umifenovir, a template for the treatment of influenza, against COVID-19. As Dr. Navin Vankadari, a researcher at the Australian Monash University, explained, when umifenovir is attached to the S-protein of the coronavirus, the latter function is disrupted, that is, umifenovir prevents the virus from entering the cells of the body, and the virus loses its ability to multiply. The existing vaccines do not have a sufficiently high efficiency against mutating strains of the coronavirus, which aggravates the need for the development of new etiotropic drugs against diseases. In addition, according to a study conducted at a Wuhan Clinical Hospital, arbidol is able to reduce mortality from viral pneumonia among adults with COVID-19.
Studies show that umifenovir is active against many coronaviruses, both seasonal and highly pathogenic. So, according to the head of the laboratory of experimental virology of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “NIIVS im. I.I. Mechnikov “by Irina Leneva, studies with SARS-CoV-2 Dubrovka and PIK35 strains isolated from Russian strains with COVID-19 showed that umifenovir inhibited further virus multiplication in infected cells. “This fact is the expediency of using arbidol in the early stages of the disease, especially for prophylaxis,” noted doctor.
According to results research by Dr. Tongji Jinnong Zhang, umifenovir reduces the risk of contracting coronavirus. The speaker analyzed the data within the families where the sick person was, and among the medical workers. “Our results show that arbidol can reduce the risk of contracting the new coronavirus in hospitals and families,” he said. – A total of 66 family members and 124 healthcare workers had evidence of contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient. Arbidol was a protective factor against the development of COVID-19 in 95 percent of those surveyed. ” In a different study The doctor found that in the group of patients with COVID-19 who received umifenovir, not a single summer case was recorded, while in the other group in which patients did not take the drug, five people died. “This is an encouraging result.” Thanks to the study author.
Zhifeng Yang, a researcher at the Guangzhou Medical University Hospital, revealed the results of a study by Professor Li Lanjuan involving 111 people with COVID-19. According to the data obtained, the results of computed tomography of the chest were better in the group taking umifenovir compared with symptomatic treatment. In addition, the domestic drug helped to reduce the time spent in hospital in another study, which involved 237 people. According to Zhifeng Yang, it is necessary to tackle the reprofiling of drugs and their effectiveness against coronavirus infection.
Summing up, the experts of the two countries emphasized that in Russia the most researched drug for the treatment and prevention of acute respiratory viral infections, influenza A and B is arbidol. According to the results of research conducted at different times with scientists from China, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic, USA, research studies obtained at the international level.