There are 17 cases of COVID-19 tx with stem cells worldwide

Bio Korea, COVID-19 treatment development trend special session

Mobilizing various strategies from drug repositioning to RNA interference technology

As world-renowned pharmaceutical bio companies such as Gilead Sciences Korea, Novartis, and Pfizer have announced the development of COVID-19 treatment and vaccines, domestic pharmaceutical companies are also revealing their intentions through various mechanisms and strategies.

 

In particular, it has attracted attention by offering various possibilities from cytokine anti-inflammatory drug candidates through stem cells to drug repositioning and therapeutics that directly target the RNA genome of COVID-19 using RNA interference technology.

 

On the 20th, Bio Korea set up a special session on the development trend of COVID-19 treatment, and provided a place to promote the development of new drugs by sharing precautions for clinical and non-clinical development for treatment development and sharing cases of treatment development by domestic companies.

 

Six sessions of industry-academia, including academic research institutes such as the Institut Pasteur Korea and the Korea Research institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), and Cellivery, which received attention as an in vivo transport technology for pharmacological substances, participated in this online session.

 

.Soon-wook Song, vice president of SCM Life Sciences, which first published a case study on the development of a stem cell therapy for treatment of COVID-19 (SCM-AGH), explored the possibility that stem cells could be used for COVID-19 treatment through anti-inflammatory functions

 

.▲Stop cytokines, Stem cell anti-inflammatory mechanism "There is a worldwide search for ways to use stem cells for the treatment of COVID-19," said vice president Song

 

."Currently, clinical trials registered with stem cells called Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) have been registered worldwide." The number of cases reached 17," he said

 

.

Soon-Wook Song Vice President, SCM Life Sciences

#"In the first clinical trial of stem cell therapy in China, 10 COVID-19 confirmed patients participated, 7 were included in the stem cell treatment group, and 3 were included in the control group." "Patients who participated in this trial received 1x106 cells / kg stem cells once, and usually started to respond after 2-4 days," he said

 

.It has been found in animal experimental models that stem cell administration reduces inflammatory cytokines that cause cytokine storms and activates immune T cells that are effective in suppressing viruses

 

.COVID-19 confirmed patients are exposed to the immune system's cytokine when the virus penetrates the human body, and the 'cytokine storm' phenomenon that attacks normal cells is expressed

 

."We have our own original technology for separating stem cells with high purity, and we are producing high-efficiency and low-cost stem cell therapies based on this technology," said Song

 

."We have already demonstrated its effectiveness in animal models of mild and severe acute pancreatitis with these high-efficiency stem cell therapies," he explained

 

.He said, "In particular, stem cells reduce the inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha, INF-gamma, IL-1beta, and IL-6, which cause cytokine storms, and increase the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-10

 

.And activated T cells

 

." Also he said, "The expected therapeutic effects of SCM-AGH stem cell therapy are also cytokine storm control," In addition, "regulatory T cells are activated to increase IL-10 secretion, so immune cells such as abnormally activated T- and B-cells can also be regulated." It is expected to induce efficacy

 

.Stem cell therapy is expected to induce the long-term treatment efficacy by rapidly normalizing the patient's immune system," he added

 

.Cellivery, which has recently emerged as a technology for in vivo transport of pharmacological substances, is also developing therapeutic agents with a focus on anti-inflammatory properties

 

.▲Regulate the signal of nuclear location in cells, Possible to suppress hyperinflammatory reaction Dae-Woong Cho, CEO of Cellivery, who announced 'Development of iCP-NI treatment for acute inflammation suppression', said, "Intracellular transmission of a nuclear localization signal can suppress inflammation by regulating the expression of cytokines / chemokines." "COVID-19 induces a cytokine storm, leading to death, and excessive inflammatory cytokines and chemokines can lead to destruction of bronchial and alveolar tissue, leading to permanent lung damage, such as lung fibrosis," he said

 

.

Dae-Woong Cho, CEO of Cellivery

#"The iCP-NI, which we are developing, aims to regulate the expression of excessive inflammatory cytokines and chemokines," he said

 

."The nuclear location signal transmitted into the cell prevents stress-responsive transcription factors (SRTFs) from moving from the cytoplasm to the nucleus

 

.It is a mechanism to limit and suppress the inflammatory response." As a result of animal experiments, iCP-NI showed the effect of regulating the expression of chemokines (MCP-1: -89%) and a cytokine (TNF-α: -79%, IL-6: -91%, IL-12: -110% & IL) in bronchial-alveolar fluid in an inhaled pneumonia model similar to RNA virus infection

 

.-10: + 574%)

 

.In addition, Bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in animal models reduced pulmonary fibrosis by 50% and iCP-NI protects leukocytes in staphylococcal enterotoxin B and acute pneumonia animal models (CD3+ T cell: 100%, CD4+/CD3+ T cell: 96%, B220+ B cell: 85%, CD45+ macrophage: 100%), and splenocyte cell apoptosis was reduced by 97%

 

.These results indicate that iCP-NI is a potential as a new treatment for inflammation of various infectious diseases such as COVID-19, which is accompanied by cytokine storms and severe sepsis

 

.▲Mutable RNA virus, solved by RNA interference Dong-ki Lee, CEO of Olix, announced the current status of COVID-19 RNA interference treatment

 

.The challenge for COVID-19 is the high rate of RNA-based mutations

 

.This is because vaccine development is not easy due to the possibility of mutation as well as resistance to therapeutic agents

 

."We are developing treatments for various diseases through our own RNA interference technology

 

.Among domestic companies, only Olix is entering clinical trials with RNA interference technology." said CEO Lee

 

.He explained that RNA viruses have a high variability, so they can easily develop resistance to therapeutic agents, but RNA technology can be used to directly target the viral RNA genome

 

.RNA interference technology has advantages such as targeting a region that is not prone to mutation, or minimizing the possibility of mutation by allowing multiple asymmetric small-interference ribonucleic acids (siRNA) to target the genome at once

 

.In addition, the Institut Pasteur Korea focused on 'Drug Repositioning' that utilize existing treatments in COVID-19

 

."There are currently no vaccines or treatments available for COVID-19, and drug repositioning is the only alternative," said Dr

 

.Seung-Tak Kim, researcher at the Institut Pasteur Korea

 

."To discover, we first screened about 3,000 antiviral drugs against the SARS coronavirus, which was prevalent in 2002 to 2003." He said that 48 FDA-approved drugs were selected and the drugs were tested for SARS coronavirus-2 antiviral activity again

 

.As a result, a total of 24 drugs with significant antiviral efficacy against SARS coronavirus-2 were found.