Chinese Scientists Maintain That Their Drug Can Contain Coronavirus Preliminary To Vaccine

Chinese Scientists Maintain That Their Drug Can Contain Coronavirus Preliminary To Vaccine

NEW DELHI: A Chinese laboratory engrossed in making a drug is of strong belief that their drug has the capability to contain the Coronavirus pandemic that first emerged in China's city of Wuhan last year.

Since then, it has breaked an havoc globally giving a rise to worldwide rush to find the treatments and vaccines.

As per researchers, Chinese scientists at the prestigious Peking University have been testing a drug that they claim have the ability to shorten the recovery time for those infected and can even offer short-term immunity from the virus.

The Director of Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics at Beijing's University, Sunney Xie told news agency AFP that the drug emerged victorious at the animal testing stage.

"When we injected neutralising antibodies into infected mice, after five days the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500", he said.

He continued to assert, "That means this potential drug has (a) therapeutic effect."

The drug uses neutralising antibodies which are produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus infecting cells. Those antibodies were also isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients by Xie's team.

The scientific journal cell published a study based on the team's research work on Monday which suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential 'cure' for the disease and shortens recovery time.

Xie said his team had been working round the clock to discover the antibody.

"Our expertise is single-cell genomics rather than immunology or virology. When we realised that the single-cell genomic approach can effectively find the neutralising antibody we were thrilled."

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He also maintained that the drug will be able to be ready for use later this year by the tiemif there is any any winter outbreak to tackle the pandemic which has already infected more 4.8 million people World and killed more than 315,000.

"Planning for the clinical trial is underway," added Xie. The trial will be carried out in Australia and other countries since cases have dwindled in China, offering fewer human guinea pigs for testing.

"The hope is these neutralised antibodies can become a specialised drug that would stop the pandemic", continued Xie.

The World Health Organisation has clearly stated that a vaccine could take upto 12 to 18 months.

The plasma-therapy, which has been made into practice to help the Coronavirus patients develop the defense against the virus. Plasma is a blood fluid taken from recovered individuals who have developed antibodies. This process is said to have impactful therapeutic effects.

The new drug could even offer short-term protection against the virus.

More than a 100 vaccines for COVID-19 are in the process when talking about the global data. Amid this time, as the world is facing more demand for a vaccine, Xie believes that the new drug could be a faster and more efficient way to stop the global spread of the novel coronavirus.

"We would be able to stop the pandemic with an effective drug, even without a vaccine," he said.

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