Broad-Spectrum RNA Therapeutic for Treatment of COVID-19 and Influenza

The Problem

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it painfully clear that the world lacks effective drugs that can prevent or treat respiratory infections quickly. In addition to the novel coronavirus, influenza viruses cause hundreds of thousands of deaths every year, and many other viruses have the potential to mutate and cause global pandemics. Thus, to help address current and future threats, there is a great need for broad-spectrum therapeutics that can treat and/or prevent infection by a wide range of viruses.

Our Solution

Wyss researchers have discovered a new class of immunostimulatory double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) that can effectively inhibit infection of human lung cells by a wide range of viruses including SARS-CoV-2, influenza A, and even common cold viruses. These novel dsRNAs stimulate the body’s natural Type I Interferon (IFN-I) response – its first line of defense against viruses – to neutralize invading pathogens.

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 induces a unique immune response in which the IFN-I-mediated antiviral component is much lower than the pro-inflammatory component, which likely contributes to the life-threatening “cytokine storms” that occur in patients with severe disease. Preferentially increasing the IFN-I response has the potential to correct this imbalance.

In studies with human lung Organ Chips, our dsRNAs activated IFN-I production without increasing inflammation, resulting in >95% inhibition of influenza infection and >99% inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The dsRNAs also inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection in vivo in a mouse COVID-19 model.

These dsRNAs could be used both to prevent infection as well to treat patients after they contract viral diseases, and may be particularly useful when administered via inhalation or intranasally. They can also be used to treat other conditions that would benefit from IFN induction (e.g., cancer, autoimmune diseases), as well as bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections. In addition, they could serve as an adjuvant to enhance the efficacy of existing vaccines. This RNA theraputic is short in length (~20 base pairs), fully chemically defined, and easily synthesized, making it highly amenable to commercial manufacturing.