Hope for Sars patients

2003-05-11 11:39

Hong Kong - A team of researchers at Hong Kong University said on Sunday it has discovered a potential new treatment to tackle the deadly Sars respiratory virus which has killed 212 people in the city.

Dr David Ho, an internationally renowned expert on HIV/Aids treatment, teamed up with Hong Kong University researchers to study new treatments for the coronavirus, identified by the World Health Organisation as causing Sars.

Ho told reporters that research had found that by producing a synthetic protein called a peptide, which was tailored for the coronavirus, the team had successfully protected cells from being infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).

"The peptides are molecules that were made specifically to block the entry of the Sars virus into the human cell... We are certainly pleased with the result produced by these peptides," said Ho.

"(The peptides) actually protected the cells from Sars virus infection. So the concept is validated.

"We believe there is obviously lots more work in front of the team, but it's a nice first step in this effort," he added.

"I think our experience in Aids did apply to this particular situation because there is an Aids drug that works by this sort of mechanism and if we borrow that page to apply here in this situation by simply analysing the sequence we were able to generate these peptides and test them, and at least in the laboratory they do block the virus," he said.

However, Ho stressed the findings were at a preliminary stage and further testing on animals had to be conducted.

The latest finding comes a day after Hong Kong health officials said they had adjusted their treatment of Sars.

Secretary of Health Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong said the controversial anti-viral drug Ribavirin - which US experts say is not effective in tackling Sars - would continue to be used in the first stage of the illness.

But in some cases the protease inhibitor Kaletra would be used singly or in combination with Ribavirin to tackle virus replication.

The use of steroids, which have side-effects, would now be used in the second rather than the first stage to reduce the drug load on patients, Yeoh said.

The change in treatment protocol came as the territory reported a slow-down in new Sars infections.

Single-digit increases over the past week have been taken as an encouraging sign the spread of the deadly virus is being brought under control after infecting more than 1 600 since erupting in the city in mid-March.

- AFX