Mongolians cite Genghis Khan for success dealing with pandemic

With news yesterday out of the UK that the inexpensive and widely available steroid dexamethasone significantly reduced deaths in coronavirus patients who are intubated and those requiring oxygen, following published evidence last month that the antiviral Remdesivir shortened time to recovery, the search for a breakthrough drug or approach that improves survival before approval of a viable vaccine remains illusive.

Add to this the potential for the virus to mutate—already with multiple strains— the search for a new approach would be ideal.

Now, researchers at UC San Diego have pioneered a novel pathway for treating infections using “nanosponges”—a technology that may hold promise for treating patients with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19.

Their aim is to use the nanosponges—biodegradable polymers coated with cell membranes and 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair—as a decoy, ultimately preventing the coronavirus from infecting human cells and then reproducing.

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