Cheap liver drug can prevent COVID-19
A cheap, readily available drug used to treat liver disease could also prevent COVID-19 infections — regardless of the variant.
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Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that a cheap, readily available drug used to treat liver disease can also prevent COVID-19 infections.
“We are optimistic that this drug could become an important weapon in our fight against COVID-19,” said lead researcher Fotios Sampaziotis.
The discovery: Many of the cells in our body have a protein called “ACE2” on their surfaces, and the coronavirus uses this protein like a doorway to gain entry into our cells.
The Cambridge researchers were studying bile duct organoids — tiny, three-dimensional clumps of cells that can take on the function of a larger organ — when they discovered that a molecule prevalent in their mini bile ducts, called FXR, regulates ACE2.
FXR has been linked to common liver diseases, and by treating their organoids with a drug prescribed for those diseases — ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) — the researchers discovered they could decrease the expression of ACE2 on the cells and essentially close the doorway.
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UDCA isn’t 100% effective at stopping infection, but when the Cambridge team looked at existing data to compare the outcomes of COVID-19 patients who were taking the drug to those who weren’t, they discovered that those on UDCA were less likely to develop severe infections or be hospitalized.
“Using almost every approach at our fingertips we showed that an existing drug shuts the door on the virus and can protect us from COVID-19,” said first author Teresa Brevini.
Why it matters: The approval of highly effective COVID-19 vaccines was a game changer in the pandemic, but because the shots prevent COVID-19 by training the immune system to target the virus, they aren’t a viable form of protection for people with weak immune systems.
The vaccines have also proven less effective against new COVID-19 variants, and as we learned from the bivalent boosters targeting Omicron, by the time updated versions of the shots are approved, even newer variants are already circulating.
UDCA is well-tolerated by users and can be taken indefinitely as a treatment for liver disease — that makes it a promising alternative to COVID-19 vaccines for people with weak immune systems. Because it targets the ACE2 protein on our cells — and not the coronavirus itself — it should be just as effective against future variants as the ones currently circulating, too.
It’s not clear whether the Cambridge team plans to conduct trials to determine just how effective UDCA is at preventing COVID-19, but the researchers are bullish on its potential.
“This tablet costs little, can be produced in large quantities fast and easily stored or shipped, which makes it easy to rapidly deploy during outbreaks — especially against vaccine-resistant variants, when it might be the only line of protection while waiting for new vaccines to be developed,” said Sampaziotis.
