Nanoviricide’s platform technology based NV-CoV-2 polymer increases the half-life of Remdesivir in vivo

So far, there are seven coronaviruses identified that infect humans and only 4 of them belong to the beta family of coronavirus (HCoV-HKU1, SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV). SARS family are known to cause severe respiratory disease in humans. In fact, SARS-CoV-2 infection caused a pandemic COVID-19 disease with high morbidity and mortality. Remdesivir (RDV) is the only antiviral drug so far approved for COVID-19 therapy by the FDA. However, the efficacy of RDV in vivo is limited due to its low stability in presence of plasma. This is the report of analysis of the non-clinical pharmacology study of NV-CoV-2 (Polymer) and NV-CoV-2-R (Polymer encapsulated Remdesivir) in both infected and uninfected rats with SARS-CoV-2. Detection and quantification of NV-CoV-2-R in plasma samples was done by MS-HPLC chromatography analyses of precipitated plasma samples from rat subjects. NV-CoV-2-R show RDV peak in MS-HPLC chromatography, whereas only NV-CoV-2 does not show any RDV-Peak, as expected. NV-CoV-2 polymer encapsulation protects RDV in vivo from plasma-mediated catabolism. Body weight measurements of the normal (uninfected) rats after administration of the test materials (NV-CoV-2, and NV-CoV-2-R) show no toxic effects on them. Our platform technology based NV-387-encapsulated-RDV (NV-CoV-2-R) drug has a dual effect on coronaviruses. First, NV-CoV-2 itself as an antiviral regimen. Secondly, RDV is protected from plasma-mediated degradation in transit, rendering altogether the safest and an efficient regimen against COVID-19.