A drug currently being trialled in humans has been shown to prevent death from Covid-19 in older mice by reversing immune ageing.
If the results from the BGE-175 trial can be replicated in humans, the drug could help protect the cohort most at risk of the coronavirus.
Kristen Fortney, PhD, CEO of BioAge and an author of the study, said:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated elderly populations around the world.
“The promising preclinical data in this paper show that BGE-175 almost completely protects aged mice from lethality in a compelling model of human COVID-19.
“By reversing age-related declines in critical immune mechanisms, BGE-175 could allow older patients to more effectively fight off this disease.”
Aged mice were treated with daily doses of either BGE-175 (asapiprant) or a control two days after infection.
All the mice had been infected with a mouse-adapted strain of SARS-CoV-2, which featured all the hallmarks of Covid-19 infection, such accumulation of fluid in the lungs, extensive infiltration of lung tissue by immune cells and high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
The researchers found that 90 per cent of mice treated with BGE-175 survived, whereas all the untreated mice in the control group died.
A Phase 2 clinical trial launched in March 2021 is testing whether BGE-175 can prevent respiratory failure and mortality in older adults hospitalised with Covid-19.
The trial will also measure the drug’s affect on levels of inflammatory markers to find out whether BGE-175 could help to restore normal immune regulation.
Eric Verdin, MD, President and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, who was not involved in the study, said:
“A properly functioning immune system is our first defence against any virus, and we know that age-associated immune abnormalities place the elderly at a much increased risk for death and complications from COVID-19.
“New therapeutics that target age-associated pathways, especially those involved in immunity, will provide important tools for decreasing the burden of mortality and disability caused by COVID-19, as well as other infections that disproportionately harm the elderly.”