Multipurpose anti-viral pill can treat cold, norovirus, flu and Covid

Laboratory studies have found a single drug to be able to block several common viruses, including coronavirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), norovirus, and influenza and hepatitis viruses. It will be tested in clinical trials next year, raising hopes that the pill could one day be taken at home to relieve unpleasant symptoms or limit infection if another viral pandemic occurs.

“As far as we can tell, this is the first drug that has demonstrated activity across all of these viral families,” says Daniel HadersCo-founder of Model Medicines, the California-based company that is leading its development. If it’s approved, Haders envisions it will be a pill that people can take if, for example, they have a flu-like illness, but they don’t know whether it’s influenza, COVID-19, RSV, or something else.

The drug was originally developed to treat breast cancer under the name ERA-923, but was discontinued in the early 2000s. little profit In clinical trials. Now, an AI drug-discovery platform developed by Haders and his colleagues has discovered that the forgotten drug can inhibit a range of viruses through an unrelated mechanism.

The platform was tasked with finding a drug that could block a viral enzyme called RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, which many viruses use to copy and replicate their genome. It specifically looked for drugs that could bind to a part of the enzyme called the thumb-1 domain, after identifying that this site is conserved in many viruses. “We wanted to find a biological chokepoint – a place where a single drug against a single target can address dozens of diseases,” says Haders.

By Mining data from old papers and patentsThe AI ​​has designated ERA-923 as a potential candidate that can bind to the thumb-1 domain and thus block viral replication. “Just as OpenAI and Anthropic have downloaded all of digital human knowledge, we have done the same for chemistry, biology, and clinical pharmacology,” says Haders. He has been applying computational methods to drug design since his PhD research 20 years ago, but says the AI ​​tools available now are “a million times better”.

To test the AI’s prediction, the researchers measured the activity of the drug, renamed MDL-001, against a series of viruses in infected cells in a lab. They found that it blocks influenza A and B viruses, several coronaviruses that cause the common cold or COVID-19, RSV (which causes flu-like symptoms and can be serious in infants), norovirus (also known as the winter vomiting bug) and hepatitis B, C and D, which cause liver damage.

MDL-001 also helped treat COVID-19 in mice, reducing levels of latent virus in their lungs and reducing their weight loss from the disease. It had similar efficacy in mice with hepatitis B and C. Headers will render results Congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases In mid-April in Munich, Germany.

peter white The University of New South Wales in Australia is skeptical, as are other drugs that have been developed to target only the thumb-1 domain. prevent hepatitis cNot other viruses. But Model Medicines claims that MDL-001 has a different docking mode that allows it to work on multiple viruses. Daniel Raval The QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia also notes that “most antivirals that work in vitro fail in vivo”.

Model Medicines is now planning clinical trials of MDL-001, which are scheduled to begin early next year. The first step would be to make sure it is safe, although previous trials in people with breast cancer have shown that it is safe. minimal side effects.

At the moment, viral diseases are a huge burden on well-being and productivity, as people often have to take time off work when they or their children become sick with them. Haders says if these conditions could be treated rapidly with a short course of a multi-purpose antiviral pill at home, it would be a game changer. They say MDL-001 could also be useful in case of future pandemics of novel coronavirus or influenza virus.