Drug Development Studies Against COVID-19 Reach Phase 2

Phase 2 clinical trials of Montelukast, identified through drug repurposing studies within the TÜBİTAK COVID-19 Türkiye Platform, are continuing.

In the project jointly supported and conducted by Bahçeşehir University and İstanbul Medipol University within the TÜBİTAK COVID-19 Türkiye Platform, the efficacy against COVID-19 of the drug Montelukast, used in the treatment of asthma and allergies, is being investigated on volunteer patients at 8 centers.

"IT PREVENTS THE VIRUS FROM ENTERING AND REPLICATING IN CELLS"

The project had highlighted that the drug "Montelukast", used in the treatment of asthma and allergies, showed a strong effect in the treatment of COVID-19 in preclinical tests and delayed the virus's effect on healthy cells by up to 20 hours. The molecule, which prevents the virus from entering cells and replicating inside them, became a great hope for drug studies following vaccine studies. The Phase 2 clinical trials, which began in May and are planned to be conducted on 380 volunteer patients, are currently continuing at 8 different centers in Istanbul, Ankara and Samsun. The number of centers where the clinical trial will be conducted is expected to increase to 9 in the coming days.

ALSO EFFECTIVE AGAINST THE UK VARIANT

From a library of 15,000 molecules consisting of approved drugs used in the treatment of various diseases and drugs at clinical phase stages, 25 molecules were selected using virtual screening algorithms developed at the BAU Computational Biology and Molecular Simulations Laboratory; after biochemical tests were performed on them, virus neutralization tests conducted at TÜBİTAK MAM had found Montelukast to be effective according to preclinical test results. Simulations highlighted that the drug is also effective against the UK and South African variants as well as the Delta variant.