Bhubaneswar: At a time when Covid-19 continues to rage across the globe, a youth from Rayagada district of Odisha, Aditya Kumar Padhi is leading a research in Japan to find out an effective drug for the treatment of the viral disease that has already claimed over 6 lakh lives and infected around 14 million.
Aditya is one of the three researchers from India who are currently testing the efficacy of an existing drug called 'Umifenovir' in the treatment of COVID patients with mild or moderate symptoms.
Aditya Kumar Padhi is a post-doctoral research fellow at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan while the other two researchers engaged in the study with him were Aniruddha Seal, an MSc student of NISER, Bhubaneswar and Timir Tripathi, an assistant professor in North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong.
Aditya completed his B.Tech in biotechnology from Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), Rourkela in 2009 and PhD in biological sciences from IIT Delhi in 2016.
It is believed that if the drug 'Umifenovir' succeeds in curing Covid-19, it would be a remarkable feat as so far not a single drug worldwide has lived up to ensure a perfect cure for the disease.
Researchers are also optimistic that the drug under the brand name Arbidol is capable in preventing SARS-nCoV-induced infection. While China has been referring to the anti-viral drug for Covid-19 treatment, India too has also started the clinical trial of Umifenovir.
Speaking to OTV in an exclusive interview, Aditya shared the methods the research team adopted in the study and the future perspective of the drug in the treatment of Covid-19. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
How Umifenovir Will Be Helpful In Containing Coronavirus Infection?
The medicines which are being prescribed for treating coronavirus-infected patients across the world are not full proof and many of them have been showing side effects. China was referring to the anti-influenza drug for Covid-19 treatment and the information regarding the effectiveness of the medicine was not in the public domain. To find out the answers for the same, our team started researching. We used supercomputers and adopted advanced computational methods to find out how the drug was useful in containing coronavirus infection.
When Are You Looking Forward To Start Clinical Trial Of The Drug?
Umifenovir has been approved in China and Russia and doctors in those countries have begun prescribing it for treating the patients. In India, the Central Drug Research Institute in collaboration with several hospitals has also finished the Phase I and II clinical trial of the antiviral drug. Meanwhile, the drug has received the permission for Phase-III trial and once it completes without any hurdles, we expect the Government of India will approve it for Covid-19 treatment.
How Successful Was Umifenovir In Treating Covid-19 Patients In China & Russia?
Though we don't have any direct reports on the success of the drug in curing Covid-19 patients, indirect evidence in China shows it reduced mortality rate by a large extent as compared to that in USA and other European countries. Our research reveals that the drug is effective in containing SARS-nCoV infection in early stages.
How Do You Continue The Research Amid Lockdown In Japan? What Were The Challenges?
We carried our research remotely and used supercomputers for the study. The Novel-Coronavirus uses its Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of the viral spike-protein to bind the ACE2 receptor (which allow the virus to enter cells) in the human body and spread the infection. Umifenovir drug binds the RBD/ACE2 interface, forms stronger interactions with the viral spike protein and causes protein structural changes, which prevents the virus to enter the human cell.
We did not face many challenges in the research as we did the study through the advanced computational method and therefore our lives were not at risk. This helped us in executing the research within a period of three months.
What Is The Difference Between Fabiflu And Umifenovir?
Fabiflu is also an anti-influenza drug but the virus spike-protein it targets, is different from Umifenovir (Arbidol). Research says that Fabiflu has side effects and harmful for pregnant. However, the side effects of Umifenovir have not come up so far. Arbidol targets the spike-protein while Fabiflu inhibits the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp)-- an enzyme that allows the Coronavirus to multiply inside host cells.
How Umifenovir Will Be Helpful For Indian Covid-19 Patients?
Our study says that the mutation rate of Coronavirus is very slow and therefore the drugs might help in the treatment of Covid-19 patients in India too.
When Umifenovir Drug Will Come To India?
If the phase III clinical trial of Umifenovir remains statistically successful and the drug gets green signal from the Indian government, it can be launched for treating patients in India by the end of this year of the beginning of 2021.
(Edited By Suryakant Jena)
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