Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York say that an existing FDA-approved drug has the potential to reduce the danger of the coronavirus into nothing worse than a common cold or even eradicate it completely.

Prof. Ya’acov Nahmias of Hebrew University and Dr. Benjamin Tenoever of Sinai spent the last three months studying what COVID-19 does to human lung cells, The Jerusalem Post reported. Their research showed that the reason that COVID-19 is so damaging to some patients is that it prevents the regular burning of carbohydrates, which leads to large amounts of fat, lipid droplets, to accumulate inside lung cells – a condition the virus requires in order to reproduce.

“By understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 controls our metabolism, we can wrestle back control from the virus and deprive it from the very resources it needs to survive,” Nahmias said, adding that this may be the reason why patients with high blood sugar and/or cholesterol are at high-risk to develop COVID-19.

In light of their conclusions, the researchers tried eight existing drugs that may block the coronavirus’s reproduction capabilities and the drug Fenofibrate (Tricor) caused the cells to start burning the excess fat, leading to the virus almost disappearing within five days of treatment.

The experiment was carried out in laboratories in Israel and New York several times with various lung samples and is already advancing to animal testing in New York. Since the drug has already been proven to be safe, the researchers hope to fast-track clinical studies in Israel and New York over the next two weeks.

The researchers have published their study online on Cell Press and their work is being funded by the European Research Council, the Nikoh Foundation, and the Sam and Rina Frankel Foundation.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)