Clinical benefit of remdesivir in rhesus macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Efficient therapies to deal with COVID-19 are urgently needed. While lots of investigational, approved, and repurposed drugs have actually been suggested, preclinical data from animal designs can direct the search for reliable treatments by eliminating treatments without in vivo effectiveness. Remdesivir (GS-5734) is a nucleotide analog prodrug with broad antiviral activity ^1,2, that is currently examined in COVID-19 medical trials and just recently received Emergency Usage Permission from the US Food and Drug Administration ^3,4 In animal models, remdesivir treatment worked against MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV infection. ^2,5,6 In vitro, remdesivir prevented replication of SARS-CoV-2. ^7,8 Here, we examined the effectiveness of remdesivir treatment in a rhesus macaque design of SARS-CoV-2 infection ⁹ In contrast to vehicle-treated animals, animals treated with remdesivir did not show signs of breathing disease and had actually decreased lung infiltrates on radiographs and decreased infection titers in bronchoalveolar lavages 12 hrs after the very first treatment administration. Virus shedding from the upper respiratory tract was not lowered by remdesivir treatment. At necropsy, lung viral loads of remdesivir-treated animals were lower and there was a reduction in damage to the lungs. Therefore, healing remdesivir treatment started early throughout infection had a scientific advantage in SARS-CoV-2-infected rhesus macaques. The rhesus macaque design does not represent the extreme disease observed in a proportion of COVID-19 patients, our data support early remdesivir treatment initiation in COVID-19 clients to avoid development to pneumonia.

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