Anti-inflammatory compound shows possibility of treating patients with extreme COVID-19

According to a study from UTHealth Houston and other institutions, an anti-inflammatory compound may potentially treat brain injury and systematic inflammation in patients with extreme COVID-19 and remarkably reduce their chances of death.

A group of researchers, including UTHealth Houston faculty members Aaron M. Gusdon, H. Alex Choi and Louise D. McCullough, conducted a randomized, multi-site, placebo-controlled, double-blind, adaptive Phase 2 trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of an anti-inflammatory compound called OP-101, in patients with extreme COVID-19. The results were published recently in Science Translational Medicine.

In the trial, twenty-four patients classified as having extreme COVID-19 across five clinical sites in the US were randomized to receive a single dose of OP-101 or placebo at two, four, or eight mg/kg. Every patient received standard of care, including corticosteroids.

Hyperinflammation resulting from SARS-CoV-2 is a significant cause of severity in COVID-19. Placebos were found to be worse than OP-101 at decreasing inflammatory markers, in addition to being better at reducing markers of neurological injury, including glial fibrillary acidic protein and neurofilament light chain.

In addition, the risk for the composite outcome of mechanical ventilation or death at 30 or 60 days after treatment was seventy-one per cent for patients receiving the placebo but just eighteen per cent for patients in the pooled OP-101 treatment arms. At sixty days after treatment, fourteen of seventeen patients treated with OP-101 and three of seven given placebo survived.

The data signifies that OP-101 was well tolerated in the critically ill patient population and could serve as a successful treatment for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

Gusdon, who was first author on the study, has stated: “OP-101 is a novel nanotherapeutic compound that specifically targets activated macrophages and microglia, the primary immune cell in the brain. Due to its excellent safety profile, we were excited to offer this therapy to these critically ill patients at Memorial Hermann Hospital. Although this was a small-dose escalation trial, there was a strong signal toward benefit at both acute and chronic time point. The possibility that this therapy could also benefit patients with other diseases that lead to systemic inflammatory responses, including various forms of brain injury, is fascinating.”