Prominently accountable for the upsurge of COVID-19 cases as the world attempts to recover from the previous two waves, Omicron has further threatened the conventional therapeutic approaches. Omicron is the fifth variant of concern (VOC), which comprises more than 10 mutations in the...
arxiv.org
Insights from a computational analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant: Host-pathogen interaction, pathogenicity and possible therapeutics
Owing to its characteristics of rendering existing treatments ineffective, we evaluated the drug efficacy against their target protein encoded in the Omicron through molecular docking approach. Most of the tested drugs were proven to be effective. Nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), MPro 13b, and Lopinavir displayed increased effectiveness and efficacy,
while Ivermectin showed the best result against Omicron.
After having retrieved the complete genome sequence and collecting 30 variants from the database, the researchers analyzed 10 drugs against the virus, including:
The researchers found that each of the drugs had some degree of effectiveness against the virus and most were currently in clinical trials. They used molecular docking to find that the mutations in the Omicron variant didn’t significantly affect the interaction between the drugs and the main protease.
An analysis of all 10 drugs found that ivermectin was the most effective drug candidate against the Omicron variant. The testing included Nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), which is the new protease inhibitor for which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
provided an emergency use authorization against COVID in December 2021.
In other words,
Pfizer released a new drug which cost the U.S. taxpayers $5.29 billion or
$529 per course of treatment and which received an EUA despite the availability of a similar drug that has proven to be more effective and is cheaper.
How ivermectin works
Ivermectin is best known for its antiparasitic properties. Yet, the drug also has
antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties. Studies have shown that ivermectin helps to lower the viral load by
inhibiting replication. A single dose of ivermectin can kill 99.8% of the virus within
48 hours.