The best news the world has received after almost 2 years of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has been the development of a cure for the coronavirus by Russian scientists.
A new drug against the coronavirus that could significantly alleviate the course of serious diseases caused by this pathogen, which received the name Mir-19, has been developed by the Institute of Immunology of the Federal Agency for Biomedicine of Russia.
The word ‘mir’ in Russian means two things: ‘world’ and ‘peace’. If this drug is really as effective as its creators claim, it could bring peace to many families around the world.
RT spoke with the director of the medical institution, Musá Jaítov, to learn more details about this new drug.
One of a Kind
“It is the first drug of its kind in the world. It is a specific antiviral etiotropic drug. It directly affects the RNA of SARS-CoV-2. It manages to eliminate the virus from the infected cell,” he explained.
Thanks to Mir-19, the course of diseases that the virus can cause is alleviated. Its creators assure that the sooner the drug begins, the better the health of the infected person will be restored. And they specify that the greatest efficacy is achieved in the first three days after infection.
The drug is applied with the help of a simple inhaler. In this way, the antiviral component goes directly up into the respiratory tract. The drug’s formula ensures that the virus practically stops reproducing.
Safety first
At the Institute of Immunology, they affirm that their drug will be effective against all variants of the coronavirus, because it interacts with the most resistant fragments of the covid-19 genome. According to the creators of the drug, this interaction is absolutely safe for human health.
“At the development stage it was very important to choose small interfering RNAs, so that they do not affect human genes,” said Jaítov.
“In this sense, the drug blocks the virus gene without interacting with the human gene. We have done very serious analytical work to prove it. This means that it is safe for people,” he explained.
Spray version
In a first stage, Mir-19 is expected to be applied exclusively in hospitals.
Then, it will be available to the general public. Even a spray format will be launched, which will aim to prevent contagion after contact with someone infected with coronavirus. In this case, the drug could slow down the development of the disease.
