Carissa Wong is a person.
There is a coronaviruses variant binding to a cell.
There are design cells and science libraries.
As new coronaviruses emerge, a drug that targets the entry point could protect against the infections.
There is a risk that existing treatments and vaccines will become less effective as the virus becomes more resistant.
Fotios Sampaziotis and his colleagues at the University of Cambridge were studying conditions that affect bile ducts when they discovered a molecule called FXR. This receptor is present on the surface of many cells.
The researchers confirmed that the drug ursodeoxycholic acid, which is approved in the UK and the US for the treatment of gallstones, regulates FXR.
Nine hamsters were given a similar dose of covid-19 to see if it worked. A group of hamsters were given a solution. The animals were put into a cage with hamsters that had been exposed to the coronaviruses.
The team analysed the lung samples from the hamsters that were euthanized four days later. The hamsters that were treated with UDCA caught the virus in one-third of them.
During the experiment, the hamsters had unrestricted access to food. The people who were given the solution lost about 9 percent of their body weight. The animals that were treated with UDCA gained some weight. The drug reduced its severity among the hamsters that were treated by the UDCA.
The drug won't completely prevent virus from entering cells, but it will prevent how much it replicates.
The team performed a test on a set of lungs. The lungs came from an organ donor but weren't suitable for transplant.
UDCA was injected into one of the lungs.
After six hours, the levels of ACE2 in the UDCA-treated lung had halved, on average.
The lungs of the mice and the lungs of the lungs were not immunocompromised, but a drug like UDCA could benefit people with suppressed immune systems, who may launch less of an immune response after being vaccined against covid-19.
People with suppressed immune systems can be treated with Evusheld. The antibodies that bind to ACE2 prevent the spikeprotein from attaching to thereceptor.
Immune treatments are less effective due to the rapid evolution of the SARS- CoV-2.
The doorway is calledACE2 and it allows the virus to go in the cell. If you close the door, the virus can't replicate itself and we can prevent the infection in a way that doesn't depend on the immune system.
The best way to prevent covid-19 is with vaccination, but the treatments could reduce an individual's risk.
The researchers are trying to figure out if the effects of UDCA on animals and humans translate to humans.
The journal's title is " Nature."
There are more on this topic.
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