New coronavirus drug discovered in my country

On May 10, a new drug for the treatment of COVID-19 discovered by Chinese scientists was granted a national invention patent. The patent specification shows that 10% u3BCM (micromol/L) can inhibit the replication of coronavirus by a factor of 15393 times.

What does the number 15,000 times mean? On May 12, a reporter from Science and Technology Daily interviewed the inventor of this patent, Professor Tong Yigang, Dean of the School of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology.

"In layman's terms, this number can be understood as if there are 15,393 viruses without the fenugreek drug, then with the 10% u3BCM fenugreek drug, the number of viruses will be only 1. That is to say, a very small amount It can prevent the amplification and spread of the new coronavirus." Tong Yigang said that from the current research data, the drug's ability to inhibit the new coronavirus ranks among the top of all the new coronavirus inhibitors discovered by humans. American scholars have previously published papers in "Science" confirming that the data of fenugreek in the 26 drugs they have studied are eye-catching, and they are better than Remdesivir and Paloviride, which have been approved for marketing.

First published by Chinese scholars, tracked and verified by multiple international teams

"With the support of the major national special projects, the drug Qianjintiansu was incorporated into the compound library of our research group very early along with thousands of drugs." Tong Yigang said, "When the new coronavirus first appeared, our task was It is the fastest way to find the most promising of these drugs, that is, the most effective for inhibiting the new coronavirus."

Since January 2020, Tong Yigang's team has used a unique drug screening platform to screen thousands of drugs.

"Because the screening platform is convenient and does not require special laboratory, negative pressure operation and other equipment, our screening speed is fast; also due to the high homology between the pangolin coronavirus and the new coronavirus on the genome and key protein (S protein) that the platform relies on , the screened results are more reliable." Tong Yigang said that the team first discovered that fenugreek has super anti-new coronavirus activity in February 2020, and the related paper published in March of the same year has now become an ESI highly cited paper.

For more than two years, research teams from various countries have been constantly looking for effective drugs to inhibit the new coronavirus. Scientists discover new clues through papers, academic seminars, etc., continue to question and confirm, and explore the mechanism of action.

In April 2020, the team of Professor Takashi Wakida, director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan, published a paper confirming the effect of fenugreek against the new coronavirus; from October 2020 to August 2021, several research teams published papers in international journals. Published the research progress of fenugreek against new coronavirus.

At the same time, Tong Yigang further cooperated with the team of academician Zhong Nanshan, Professor Zhao Jincun and Professor Shi Zhengli, to verify the anti-new crown virus effect of the new crown virus, and confirmed the anti-new crown virus effect of the drug.

The experiment found that the low concentration of fenugreek still has a good inhibitory effect on SARS-CoV-2, and the inhibition rate of fenugreek at the concentration of 12.5% u3BCM and 6.25% u3BCM on SARS-CoV-2 is close to 100%.

The data stands out, and clinical trials are urgently needed

"The high activity data of fenugreek against the new coronavirus is comparable." Tong Yigang said, "Whether it is the experimental data of our team or the research data of the American team, it can inhibit the inhibition of many compounds including fenugreek. Covid-19 conducted a comparative study."

This patent specification shows that the three kinds of anti-new coronavirus effective compounds screened out: seraphine, silamectin, and mefloquine hydrochloride were tested, and 10% u3BCM of fenugreek, silamectin, methyl hydrochloride was tested. Fluoroquine can inhibit virus replication by 15393 times, 5053 times and 31 times respectively after 72 hours of cell infection, and the experimental results can be repeated.

An article published in the journal "Science" in July 2021 confirmed this conclusion: the researchers compared fenugreek with 25 other candidate compounds, and the results showed that fenugreek was resistant to the new crown The EC50 of the virus (the concentration that causes 50% of the maximal effect, the lower the better) is only 0.1 % u3BCM, which is much lower than other drug candidates.

"We have further explained the mechanism of fenugreek against 2019-nCoV by means of transcriptomics." Tong Yigang said, it is currently believed that fenugreek mainly reverses most of the dysregulated genes and pathways in infected cells by interfering with the cellular stress response. Play an anti-coronavirus effect.

At present, a Canadian pharmaceutical company has approached the US FDA to conduct a clinical trial study of fenugreek in the treatment of new coronary pneumonia. It is expected that the clinical trial will be officially launched in the second half of this year.

"Our country is the first to discover the effect of fenugreek against the new crown, and the research has also been supported by many projects such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, Beijing, and the Ministry of Education. We hope to carry out clinical trials as soon as possible, so that scientific and technological achievements can be implemented and practically used in anti-coronavirus. Epidemic." Tong Yigang said that this patent authorization will help carry out further clinical trial research.