According to reports scientists in Israel have developed a drug which helps patients recover from Covid in just five days.
The Times of Israel were told by researchers at Tel Aviv’s Medical Center, said the development was a “huge breakthrough” in treating the virus.
Phase 1 of the drug trial called EXO-C24, seems to suggest that the drug can help Covid patients to recover within 5 days, according to local reports.
The medical team at the hospital cured 29 out of 30 patients within 3 to 5 days using the drug. The new drug which uses exosomes, delivers a protein called CD24 into the lungs using tiny sacs that move between cells.
“To date, the preparation has been tried with great success on 30 severe patients, in 29 of whom the medical condition improved within two to three days and most of them were discharged home within three to five days.
“The 30th patient also recovered but after a longer time,” the hospital reported.
It helps to calm down the immune system which then prevents a cytokine storm which releases life threatening systemic inflammatory syndrimes with immune cell hyperactivation, which results in multiple organ failiure and then death.
Researcher Shiran Shapira said, “This protein is located on the surface of cells and has a well known and important role in regulating the immune system.”
Adding, “The drug is based on exosomes, [vesicles] that are released from the cell membrane and used for intercellular communication. We enrich the exosomes with C24D protein. This protein is expressed on the surface of the cell and has a known and important role in regulating the immune system.”
Professor Nadir Arber, the director of the laboratory, told the Times of Israel, “The preparation is inhaled once a day for a few minutes, for five days.”
He said, “The preparation is directed straight to the heart of the storm, the lungs so unlike other formulas… which selectively restrain a certain cytokine, or operate widely but cause many serious side effects, EXO-CD24 is administered locally, works broadly and without side effects.”
He added, “Even if the vaccines perform their function, and even if no new mutations are produced then still in one way or another the corona will remain with us.”
Professor Ronni Gamzu, CEO of the medical center said, “Prof Arber’s results for first-phase research were excellent and gave us all confidence in the method he has been researching [here] for many years.
“I personally assisted him in further obtaining the approvals from the Ministry of Health for further research.”
19 out of 21 Phase II and Phase Ib Allocetra trial patients recovered and were discharged from the hospital after an average of just over five and half days.
Many of the patients in both clinical studies had pre-existing health conditions, such obesity and hypertension.
Professor Vernon van Heerden, head of the General Intensive Care Unit at Hadassah and the lead investigator of both clinical trials said, “The results we have seen from the 12 Covid-19 patients treated to date with Allocetra are exciting,”
“The Phase II patients who have been discharged from the hospital are currently healthy.
“We believe that these compelling results have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of Allocetra in these complicated patients, highlighting the potential of Enlivex’s product candidate to benefit severe and critical Covid-19 patients as well as others suffering from cytokine storms and organ dysfunctions across various clinical indications.”
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