United States: A new study shows that a cancer drug called eganelisib might help stop damage to organs from severe COVID infections. Eganelisib works by blocking a part of the immune system that causes harmful inflammation in cancer tumors.
In lab tests with mice and human tissue, scientists found that eganelisib could also help reduce inflammation from COVID-19. This exciting finding was published on July 3 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
COVID-19 and Long-Term Organ Damage
As reported in U.S. News, COVID is mainly known as lung disease, but severe and serious cases are known to damage the heart, gastrointestinal system, kidneys, brain and the most important nervous system, this damage also contributes to the Long COVID which is a debilitating condition where the symptoms that last months and years beyond this initial infection.
How Eganelisib Works
This P13K gamma enzyme can cause a type of white blood cell which are called myeloid cells to flood tumor tissue and creating inflammation that worsens the cancer that’s what the researchers said.
And sadly, they can do a lot of damage if the immune system over- reacts to a severe infection said the senior researcher Judith Varner who is professor of pathology and medicine at the University of California situated in San Diego.
“If you have a little infection, myeloid cells come in, kill bacteria, release alerts that recruit even more potent killer immune cells, and produce substances that can heal the damage,” Varner explained in a UCSD news release.
Lab Results and Future Research
“But if you get an infection that’s too strong, you get overproduction of these alert signals and the substances they release to kill these infective agents can also kill yourself,” Varner added. “That’s what happens in COVID-19.”
The lab tests said researchers found that eganelisib that can keep myeloid cells from the doing damage to human tissue and that infected lab mice.
“We sequenced COVID-19 patient lung tissue and showed that when patients have COVID-19, a lot of their lung cells are killed and there’s a huge increase in myeloid cells,” Varner said. “We also found the same thing in infected mice.”
Drug’s Status and Future
“When we treated with the drug, we showed that eganelisib prevents entry of myeloid cells into tissue so they can’t do all that damage,” Varner added. “Further studies will determine if it can actually reverse damage.”
This Eganelisib received fast-track designation from the U.S Food and Drug Administration in 2020, but has not yet approved. The company that developed the drug and Infinity Pharmaceuticals declared bankruptcy in 2023.