Scientists find MERS remedy!
Scientists have for the first time identified two promising drug candidates to prevent and treat the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) disease.
Researchers discovered and validated two therapeutics that show early promise in preventing and treating the disease, which can cause severe respiratory symptoms, and has a death rate of 40 per cent.
These therapeutics are the first to succeed in protecting and treating animal models of the MERS virus, researchers said.
“While early, this is very exciting, and has real potential to help MERS patients,” said lead researcher, Matthew B Frieman, from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM).
“We hope that clinical study will progress on these two antibodies to see whether they can eventually be used to help humans infected with the virus,” said Frieman.
The two antibodies, REGN3051 and REGN3048, showed an ability to neutralise the virus.
MERS was first discovered in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. It appears that the disease spread to humans from camels, who may themselves been infected by bats, researchers said.
Research has shown that it is similar to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS); both are caused by Coronaviruses, both cause respiratory problems, and both are often fatal.
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