Several other universities and groups are also working on a similar technique
A drug that is effective against the COVID-19 Coronavirus might already be on lab table at the RUG. Researcher Paul Hagedoorn is currently working day and night to make it suitable for a test on test subjects, possibly in as soon as four weeks, as reported by the UKrant.
Researchers Paul Hagedoorn and Erik Frijlink think that an existing anti-malaria drug may help to fight the Coronavirus. The existing medicine includes the substances Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquinene.
Research has shown that these substances can work against the virus at a cellular level.
Before the drug can be tested on corona patients, it is important that the drugs are processed in such a way that they can be delivered directly to the lungs.
This is best done via inhalation and for this the substances must be minutely small: think of shrinking a grain of sugar 25 million times small.
The researchers hope to be able to test the drug as soon as possible. There are fewer boundaries to this, because it is an existing drug combination that does not have to be tested on animals, for example. It may take just a few weeks before the first trial takes place.
Ultimately, the question is whether the medicine will cause any side-effects, and whether the active substances do their job in an efficient way. There is also a chance that the medicine will not work in its intended way, or that there are unknown complications.
Work continues.
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