The French clinical stage biotechnology company says its ABX464 is the only drug candidate with a potential triple action for Covid-19 treatment; for antiviral, anti-inflammatory and tissue repair.
Abivax, a clinical stage biotechnology company harnessing the immune system to develop novel treatments for inflammatory diseases, viral diseases and cancer, announced its ABX464 inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2 in an in vitro reconstituted human respiratory epithelium model, as assessed by Transepithelial electrical resistance and RTqPCR. ABX464 is said to have already shown to be an effective drug candidate in a severe inflammatory disease, ulcerative colitis. According to the Paris headquartered company, miR-124 specific upregulation by ABX464 can explain the triple effect of the drug candidate on inhibiting viral replication, down-regulation of cytokines that induce inflammation and tissue repair. “The breakthrough scientific data Abivax is reporting today make ABX464 a unique potential treatment for Covid-19 patients” said the company, adding that, given the current pandemic and patient’s excessive inflammatory response to viral replication as the primary cause of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and death of Covid-19 patients, ABX464 with its convenient oral administration and its potential unique triple mode of action, will be urgently tested in a European clinical trial as a potential new treatment to prevent and reduce inflammation, reduce viral replication, reduce viral replication, promote tissue repair and decrease pulmonary fibrosis.
According to Abivax, by binding to the Cap Binding Complex (CBC), ABX464 allows the splicing of a non-coding RNA, LncRNA 205, to produce miR-124, a potent anti-inflammatory microRNA that prevents the translation of multiple chemo- and cytokines as mentioned above. Furthermore, the replication of SARS-CoV-2 requires dynamin 2, a GTPase responsible for vesicle scission and cell penetration of the virus. Dynamin 2 is a target gene of miR-124 and downregulated by miR-124 upregulation. Antiviral experiments were performed at the International Research Centre specialised in infectiology at ClaudeBernard-Lyon-1 University, VirPath laboratory.
