DRDO's drug can treat heart damage caused by Covid protein, finds study

A study done on fruit flies and mice revealed that a medication created by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) may be able to repair the heart damage brought on by a protein in the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

A specific protein in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been linked to heart tissue damage, according to University of Maryland researchers. They then employed the medication, known as 2DG, to undo the heart's toxic effects caused by that protein.

The oral medication 2DG was created by Dr Reddy's Laboratories in conjunction with DRDO. The SARS-CoV-2 virus needs the breakdown of glucose, or glycolysis, in order to produce energy. The medication stops the growth of the virus and hinders glycolysis.

According to the study, those who have COVID-19 infection have a markedly increased risk of experiencing heart failure, stroke, abnormal heart rhythms, blood clots, heart attacks, and inflammation of the heart muscle for at least a year after infection.

The toxic effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus protein on the heart were then reversed by the scientists, who are from the University of Maryland in Baltimore, US.

"Our research shows that individual SARS-CoV-2 proteins can each do major damage to specific tissues in the body — similar to what has been found for other viruses like HIV and Zika," said senior author Zhe Han.

They published their findings in Nature Communications Biology after conducting research using fruit flies and mouse heart cells.

Despite the fact that vaccines and drugs to lessen the severity of COVID-19 disease were quickly created by researchers around the world, the study found that these treatments did not shield the heart or other organs from the harm that could be caused by even a mild infection.

"To treat patients in the long run, we must first understand the mechanism behind what is causing the disease. By identifying these processes of injury in each tissue, we can test drugs to see whether any can reverse this damage; those drugs that show promise can then be further tested in clinical research studies," Han said.

In studies using fruit flies and human cells last year, Han and his team discovered the SARS-CoV-2 proteins that are the most harmful. According to the study, they discovered that the drug "selinexor" reduced the toxicity of one of these proteins but not the other protein, known as Nsp6.

In their most recent investigation, they discovered that Nsp6 was the SARS-CoV-2 protein that caused the most damage to the fly heart.

The researchers then discovered, according to the study, that the Nsp6 protein commandeered the fruit fly's heart cells to activate the glycolysis process, which allows cells to burn the sugar glucose for energy. Heart cells typically use fatty acids as an energy source, but during heart failure, as these cells attempt to repair the damaged tissue, they switch to sugar metabolism.

The Nsp6 protein, which disrupts the mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell that generates energy from sugar metabolism, was also discovered by the researchers to cause additional harm.

The team then used the medication 2-deoxy-D-glucose to prevent the metabolism of sugar in fruit flies and mouse heart cells (2DG). According to the study, they discovered that the medication lessened the harm done to the heart and mitochondria by the Nsp6 viral protein.

"We know that some viruses hijack the infected animal's cell machinery to change its metabolism to steal the cell's energy source, so we suspect SARS-CoV-2 does something similar. The viruses can also use the byproducts of sugar metabolism as building blocks to make more viruses," Han said.

"So, we predict this drug that changes the metabolism in the heart back to what it was before infection would be bad for the virus, by both cutting off its energy supply and eliminating the pieces it needs to replicate," Han added.

Fortunately, 2DG is inexpensive and frequently used in laboratory research, according to the researchers. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved 2DG to treat disease, the medication is currently undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19 in India, according to the study.

"Too many Americans who have recovered from COVID wind up with dangerous heart conditions weeks or months later, and we need to learn the fundamental reasons for why this is happening," said Mark T. Gladwin, Vice President for Medical Affairs at University of Maryland.

"With this research elucidating the pathways of the Nsp6 protein, we can refine the treatments we target for future research with the ultimate aim of reversing further heart damage in these patients."

(With inputs from PTI)