A promising pill against dengue has proven to be effective on a group of patients. The drug is developed by the Johnson & Johnson laboratory. “It is the first to show antiviral activity against dengue,” said Marnix Van Loock, the company’s emerging pathogens research leader.
A total of 10 volunteers received a high dose of the pill five days before they were injected with a type of dengue fever. They continued taking the pill for 21 more days. In the end, six of the 10 showed no detectable dengue virus in their blood. Even 85 days after exposure to the pathogen.
The drug is “safe and well tolerated”highlighted the pharmacist in a release. The data were announced at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, last week.
The pill works by blocking the action of two viral proteins, preventing the virus from making copies of itself. These tests, which were developed at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, are part of a larger investigation that is in phase two and that It is carried out in more than 30 sites in 10 countries. Among them, the Philippines, Thailand, Peru, Brazil and Colombia.
The pill as a treatment for dengue
Dengue is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. Its symptoms can range from a mild fever to a disabling fever. The disease is usually accompanied by severe headache, pain behind the eyes, pain in muscles and joints. Therefore, it is also known as “bone-breaking fever.”
The disease can be very serious. In the worst cases, it can cause shock, respiratory distress, or serious organ damage. Today there are no specific treatments for dengue. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 500 million people today live in North America, Central America, and South America They are at risk of contracting dengue from the bite of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
The early trials “offer hope that science can fight this threat as more and more communities are affected around the world,” Van Loock said. “Dengue requires global action and we are proud to collaborate with partners around the world to advance the development of this compound to its next phase.”
These tests are focused on preventive treatment. However, the results suggest that it could also work as a treatment for those patients who are already infected. Johnson & Johnson said it plans to conduct other studies in this regard.
Climate change increases risk
The WHO warns that warmer temperatures are creating conditions conducive to the spread of mosquitoes that carry dengue. In turn, a billion more people are expected to be exposed to dengue worldwide by 2080.
One issue will be ensuring access to the new drug, if it works on a larger scale, in many of the low- and middle-income countries. Those places where it is needed most. “We’re working on it,” Van Loock said, although he said it was too early.
In addition to this pill against dengue, already WHO gave the go-ahead for a vaccine against the disease. In early October, the organization recommended the injection of the drug for the first time TAK-003, manufactured by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda. In the coming months, it will begin to be distributed in countries such as Brazil and Argentina. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) had already recommended its approval in 2022.