Authors
Suzanne JF Kaptein, Sofie Jacobs, Lana Langendries, Laura Seldeslachts, Sebastiaan Ter Horst, Laurens Liesenborghs, Bart Hens, Valentijn Vergote, Elisabeth Heylen, Karine Barthelemy, Elke Maas, Carolien De Keyzer, Lindsey Bervoets, Jasper Rymenants, Tina Van Buyten, Xin Zhang, Rana Abdelnabi, Juanita Pang, Rachel Williams, Hendrik Jan Thibaut, Kai Dallmeier, Robbert Boudewijns, Jens Wouters, Patrick Augustijns, Nick Verougstraete, Christopher Cawthorne, Judith Breuer, Caroline Solas, Birgit Weynand, Pieter Annaert, Isabel Spriet, Greetje Vande Velde, Johan Neyts, Joana Rocha-Pereira, Leen Delang
Publication date
2020/10/27
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume
117
Issue
43
Pages
26955-26965
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Description
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) rapidly spread around the globe after its emergence in Wuhan in December 2019. With no specific therapeutic and prophylactic options available, the virus has infected millions of people of which more than half a million succumbed to the viral disease, COVID-19. The urgent need for an effective treatment together with a lack of small animal infection models has led to clinical trials using repurposed drugs without preclinical evidence of their in vivo efficacy. We established an infection model in Syrian hamsters to evaluate the efficacy of small molecules on both infection and transmission. Treatment of SARS-CoV-2−infected hamsters with a low dose of favipiravir or hydroxychloroquine with(out) azithromycin resulted in, respectively, a mild or no reduction in virus levels. However, high doses of favipiravir significantly reduced infectious virus titers in the …
Scholar articles
SJF Kaptein, S Jacobs, L Langendries, L Seldeslachts… - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020