RE: Stake Building ?16 Dec 2020 12:15
Prof Jean-Laurent Casanova, , said: “[Interferon] accounted for nearly 15% of the critical Covid-19 cases internationally enrolled in our cohort."
Interferon can be given as a treatment, but a World Health Organization clinical trial concluded that it did not help very sick patients. However, Prof Casanova said the timing was important.
He explained: “I hope that if given in the first two, three, four days of infection, the interferon would work, because it essentially would provide the molecule that the [patient] does not produce by himself or by herself.”
Genetic differences were also found in a gene called DPP9, which plays a role in inflammation, and in a gene called OAS, which helps to stop the virus from making copies of itself.
Variations in a gene called IFNAR2 were also identified in the intensive care patients.
IFNAR2 is linked to a potent anti-viral molecule called interferon, which helps to kick-start the immune system as soon as an infection is detected.
It’s thought that producing too little interferon can give the virus an early advantage, allowing it to quickly replicate, leading to more severe disease.
The time is arriving for SNG001, Sir Prof Holgate, RM, Prof Wilkinson et al are fully aware of the long game for this drug and maximising its long term potential for society.
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