The molecule 27-hydroxycholestorol (27OHC) is present in our body as a physiological product of the oxidative metabolism of cholesterol.
In cell cultures infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, 27OHC has been found to be a strong inhibitor of viral replication. The relevance of this scientific evidence is further reinforced by the simultaneous observation of a significant decrease of this antiviral molecule in COVID-19 severe patients.
This twofold discovery, published in open access in the scientific journal Redox Biology, is the result of a multidisciplinary cooperation by Italian partners. Panoxyvir, an innovative Start-up company and academic spin-off of the University of Turin, coordinated the study, while the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Trieste tested the molecule on SARS-CoV-2 isolated from infected individuals, and the Desio Hospital/University of Milan Bicocca monitored the levels of 27OHC in the blood of individuals who tested positive but asymptomatic for SARS-CoV-2, or who were suffering from moderate to severe COVID-19.
For some time Panoxyvir has focused on the broad-spectrum antiviral activity of 27OHC, and has already demonstrated its ability to block Rhinoviruses, the principal agents of the common cold, and Rotaviruses, the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in the first years of life, with a mechanism that does not directly target the viral particles but modifies factors in the host cell necessary for the virus to replicate.
The principal authors of the research include the founders of Panoxyvir, the pathologist Giuseppe Poli, the virologists David Lembo and Andrea Civra from the University of Torino, Polo San Luigi Gonzaga- Alessandro Marcello, Head of the Molecular Virology laboratory, ICGEB – and the clinical biochemist Valerio Leoni, from the Desio Hospital/University of Milan Bicocca.
The 27OHC molecule is highly biocompatible, due to its physiological origin, and can inhibit a large variety of harmful viruses, like a broad-spectrum antibiotic against bacteria. It is, thereby, a candidate for rapid, pre-clinical development and clinical trials in humans, and a focus for antiviral strategies that are complementary to vaccines in dealing with current – and future – pandemics.
