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In a study, American scientists have identified a molecule that would act on both Covid-19 and cancer, two unrelated diseases. Where are we with this research?
Cancer and Covid are two diseases which, at first glance, have nothing in common, except that they affect a large population. This is not necessarily the opinion of American scientists of the Keck School of Medicine who recently identified a small molecule, HA15, capable, according to several studies, of reducing the replication of SARS-CoV-2 and also of acting on certain cancers. A magic molecule? It is still too early to tell, but the track is interesting.
To understand where this enthusiasm comes from, you have to do a little science. When human cells are under stress, they need large amounts of a molecule called GRP78 to survive. This GRP78 ensures the correct structure of proteins synthesized by the cell. However, in the case of Covid, the Sars-Co-2 virus also uses GRP78 to replicate.
Target seems like a sensible alternative. The researchers then carried out several experiments in vitro, specifically on their lung cells with an mRNA that inhibits GRP78. They then observed that the lung cells produce fewer virions, and that these infect neighboring cells with greater difficulty. Transposed in vivo, on mice infected with covid, the study demonstrates that the subjects have an effectively reduced viral load when they are treated with this HA15 molecule. The research was revealed on November 14 in the journal Kind Communication.
And what effect against cancer?
In another study, this time published in neoplasia, this same team this time targeted the anti-cancer properties of HA15. The American study highlights the molecule’s inhibiting action on the oncogene Kras, a mutated gene that promotes the proliferation of malignant cells in many cancers. This is not new, in 2020 a team of Chinese scientists had already noted that AH15 could kill cancer cells in the lung.
Can AH15 lead to a double drug?
If the discoveries are promising and exciting on the research side, it is still far too early to conclude on the development of a treatment that would target cancer and covid. Another team of this same Keck School of Medicine from California, also working on the molecule, was quick to respond to this discovery made on Sars Cov 2.
“There is, in our opinion, currently insufficient evidence to suggest that a combination treatment using established anti-SARs-CoV-2 therapeutics and anti-GRP78 (BiP) compounds will have an additive or synergistic effect in the suppression of SARS-CoV-2 replication. We consider it more likely that this type of combination therapy will result in increased cytotoxicity” remind the team.
Obviously, further research and preclinical work is needed to support this concept. And a clinical trial is not on the agenda.