Treatments

The COVID-19 pandemic has tragically revealed that we lack medicines against respiratory viral infections. Remdesivir is the only molecule to have been approved, but can only be administered intravenously. This limits its use to hospitalised patients and in general it is therefore given too late. Ideally, we need to have molecules that are effective against […]

RNA viruses are a clear threat to world health, regularly causing epidemics: these include the AIDS virus, the flu virus, Dengue fever, Zika, and of course SARS-CoV-2, responsible for COVID-19. Despite the development of vaccines, the virus continues to circulate, leading to the regular emergence of variants. We therefore need effective treatments against current and […]

In general, evolution enables pathogens, whether viral or bacterial, to acquire resistance to antimicrobials. SARS-CoV-2 is no exception to this principle. Emerging variants, such as the Alpha (UK), Beta (South African) or Delta (Indian) variants, seem to be more transmissible or more resistant to antibodies generated by previous infection or by vaccination. In order to […]

Although effective vaccines against COVID-19 are now on the market, there remains an urgent need to find drugs for the treatment of serious cases, since those currently available are limited. In addition, since other epidemics involving coronaviruses have occurred over the last twenty years (MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-1), it is also important to develop active treatments against […]

Hospital treatment of COVID-19 has changed significantly over the course of the pandemic. ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) is a form of cardio-respiratory support, also called extracorporeal circulation, which is proving beneficial. The system uses a machine that temporarily replaces the heart and the lungs in the blood circulation and oxygenation. Blood circulation is thereby diverted […]

Since the start of the pandemic, biomedical research has made unprecedented efforts to improve patient health and halt the progression of SARS-CoV-2. The incredible levels of incidence of COVID-19 has facilitated the carrying out of enormous numbers of clinical trials to try and evaluate the effectiveness of new molecules and old (repositioning). However, few of […]

Several neutralising antibodies that target SARS-CoV-2 have been developed and are undergoing clinical testing. Two anti-COVID-19 antibody cocktails are already on the market and reduce the risk of hospitalisation by 80%. However, these antibodies need to be administered in high doses, and their effectiveness remains limited. Researchers at the Universities of Rockefeller in New York […]

The health of COVID-19 patients can quickly degenerate. It is therefore crucial to be able to identify risks and treat them according to the clinical situation. When a case progresses towards the severe state, levels of suPAR (soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor) rise more rapidly and sooner than other known biomarkers of severity (CRP, IL-6, […]

When SARS-CoV-2 infects a cell, its genome enables the production of proteins that will be used to assemble new viral particles. The proteins are synthesised by the cellular machinery in the form of large polyproteins, cleaved by cellular and viral proteases. The viral proteases are a potentially useful target in the development of antiviral treatments […]

Effective and safe treatment against COVID-19 needs to be developed quickly, especially for elderly or high-risk individuals. Amongst medicines currently used, corticosteroids seem to reduce mortality rates in hospitalised patients, but in certain cases can have harmful side-effects and are not unanimously favoured by the medical community. They can be administered locally by inhalation, or […]