Sesderma, a Spanish company specialising in Nanotechnology, has managed to produce an effective drug named Lactyferrin (LF) to counter the COVID-19 strain. Lactyferrin (LF) is known to exhibit medicinal properties and strengthen the immune system. Since the COVID-19 strain targets immuno-compromised people, LF can turn out to be a very potent medicine against the disease.
Antiviral activity is associated with the effect of acting as a competitor of cell membrane receptors commonly used by viruses to enter cells. Specifically, lactoferrin is an ACE2 blocker and prevents the binding of the protein S from the virus spike to the host cell, preventing the virus from being fused to the cell membrane. The nanoliposome also has a beneficial action related to its size and composition (phosphatidyl choline). Because of its smaller size (100 nm) than the virus (150 nm), the liposome competes in to reach the target cell more quickly, where it settles before the virus. Lactyferrin can also suppress replication of the virus after the virus enters the cell as in the case of AIDS (Puddu et al, 1998).
Also, since the liposome that encases the Lactyferrin is made of soy lecithin (phosphatidyl choline), the medicine is biodegradable and biocompatible, which it means it is very safe.
“More than 75 patients affected by COVID-19 have been successfully treated to date with moderate to severe clinical features. Seeing the effectiveness of the medicine, the Madrid local authority has asked for the use of Lactyferrin as well. It has been also proven by us that from certain doses Lactyferrin is able to prevent COVID-19 infection. In addition, we have contributed to the success of compassionate treatments with Lactyferrin in at least 4 intubated hospitalized patients with high-risk and virtually evicted analytical signs,” said Dr Gabriel Serrano Sanmiguel, CEO and Founder of Sesderma Laboratories.
“The sheer scale on which this catastrophe has encompassed the world has brought us to a point where we desperately need a cure for this disease and looking at the test results and patient response, I believe Lactyferrin can help shift the tide in our favour,” he further added.
Treatment with Lactyferrin has already begun in Madrid at the Isema Hospital and today itself the medicine will be tested on 300 patients at different hospitals in Madrid and Valencia. Seeing the overwhelming success of the medicine against the COVID-19 strain, Sesderma has initiated an official contract with the health authority of Valencian community.
Recently, Sesderma contacted the Hon’ble Health Minister of India, Dr Harsh Vardhan of India about the effectiveness of Lactyferrin against COVID-19, and how it has been successful in completely curing 75 patients. He directed Sesderma to share this solution with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Sesderma has approached ICMR via mail and mentioned that ICMR may conduct its own trial to verify the effectiveness Lactyferrin. For this noble cause, Sesderma has volunteered to support ICMR with 30 to 40 patients. Large scale production of LF is already under way, and once it gets its green flag from the ICMR, we finally might have an effective solution to end the pandemic.