TreatmentsA Multipronged Attack against a Shared Enemy

Published 2 April 2020

Teams of medical researchers at Harvard have joined the frantic race to find a treatment for the novel coronavirus as the global pandemic intensifies. The approaches are varied and include designing small molecules that can inhibit proteins in the virus, harnessing the natural power of the human immune system by extracting antibodies from recovered patients, and repurposing existing antivirals made to fight other diseases.

Teams of medical researchers at Harvard have joined the frantic race to find a treatment for the novel coronavirus as the global pandemic intensifies. The approaches are varied and include designing small molecules that can inhibit proteins in the virus, harnessing the natural power of the human immune system by extracting antibodies from recovered patients, and repurposing existing antivirals made to fight other diseases.

Many of the collaborations extend well beyond the University.

The need is mounting, the stakes high. Worldwide there are more than 634,000 confirmed cases with 29,891 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). It now appears that the U.S. has become the epicenter, with more than 140,904 cases and 2,405 deaths.

“The goal of all this work is to develop therapies that help with both the symptoms and the progression of the disease,” said Mark Namchuk. He is executive director of Harvard Medical School’s Therapeutics Initiative and the co-lead for the therapeutics working group at the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness.

The consortium started in late February as an effort to rally the region’s biomedical science talent to develop better diagnostics, therapeutics, and potentially a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

In recent days, many possible treatments for COVID-19 have been thrust into the spotlight by health and public officials, including President Trump. One of the most promising drugs is an experimental antiviral called remdesivir. It’s delivered intravenously and works by disrupting a virus’s ability to replicate. It was developed to treat Ebola. Others include the malaria therapies chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and a combination of two HIV drugs, ritonavir and lopinavir, both alone and combined with an anti-inflammatory. Each has shown some initial promise in lab tests with COVID-19, while the effectiveness of others is largely anecdotal.

WHO announced on March 23 that it had launched global clinical trials of these drug regimens. In late February, the U.S., which is not involved in the WHO research, launched its own clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of remdesivir. Gilead Sciences, the biopharmaceutical that developed the drug, also launched its own study. At the same time, pharmaceuticals, labs, and universities worldwide have launched independent studies looking at other options.

Work on both the Gilead trial and the federal National Institutes of Health study is being done at two of Harvard’s affiliated hospitals.