An interferon factory in China.

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Wu Jiajunap / SIPA

  • For a year now, a team of researchers from Amiens, in the Somme, has been working on the effectiveness of inhaling interferons to fight Covid-19.

  • Phase 2 of a clinical trial, recognized as a national priority, is due to end in June.

  • A Chinese study, at the start of the pandemic, was able to suggest the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, while it was perhaps the benefit of interferons.

Research has been recognized as a priority by the authorities.

So much so that the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, evoked, on February 25, the hopes of this treatment during one of his speeches on Thursday.

It has been a year since a team of clinicians and epidemiologists from Amiens, in the Somme, has been working on the effectiveness of interferons (a protein) in the fight against Covid-19.

The researchers hope to complete, in June, phase 2 of their clinical trial called Cov-NI.

And the first results look promising.

They also make it possible to understand why hydroxychloroquine could have been perceived, at the start of the pandemic, as a miracle cure.

Chinese research

“It is the work of Professor Didier Raoult that involuntarily put us on the track, in February 2020,” tells

20 Minutes

, Michel Brazier, clinical pharmacist at the Amiens hospital center (CHU).

Unconvinced by the results of the Marseille researcher, the Picardy team immersed itself in a Chinese publication which had, before it, evaluated the effects of hydroxychloroquine.

One detail catches the attention of scientists.

“All the patients had received doses of inhaled interferons, a common practice in China to treat respiratory infections, but completely neglected in France.

What if the beneficial effects seen on patients were due to inhaling interferons rather than hydroxychloroquine?

“Asks Michel Brazier.

So the latter, along with his clinical pharmacist colleague, Aurélien Mary, decided to work with two infectious diseases specialists from the University Hospital of Amiens, Jean-Philippe Lanoix and Jean-Luc Schmit, to conduct research on these famous interferons.

“In April, resuscitators agreed to use this method of inhalation on four patients affected by the coronavirus and who were at a therapeutic impasse.

The patients got away with it, ”explains Michel Brazier.

One trial on 146 patients

What if the trail is really the right one?

Experiments on an artificial lung are encouraging.

A larger clinical trial becomes necessary to validate the hypothesis.

Trial which will not be able to begin until the fall, with the rebound of the epidemic.

"There were no longer enough patients in hospitals from May," says the Amiens researcher.

First refused in April, aid from the Hauts-de-France regional council was granted this time in October.

The study can take shape.

It concerns 146 patients throughout the region.

After the hospitals of Abbeville, Saint-Quentin or Valenciennes, that of Compiègne, this week, then of Tourcoing and Montreuil-sur-Mer, the next few weeks, will participate.

“We are working with Novartis laboratories which supplies the interferons.

For about ten minutes, patients in the initial viral phase inhale these proteins synthesized using a mask on the nose and mouth, ”summarizes Michel Brazier.

A similar study in England

In parallel with the research directed at the Amiens hospital, a trial on outpatient patients is being carried out in Bordeaux.

"We hope to have a reliable answer, during the month of June," he slips.

But the study would not be finished for all that.

A third phase would then be necessary to definitively validate the protocol.

Unless a similar study on interferons, carried out by the English laboratory Synairgen and the University of Southampton, completes its work more quickly than the French, allowing the treatment to be brought to market more quickly.

“The results of their phase 2 were already published in December.

The trials on one hundred patients are encouraging, but, alas, not yet sufficient to draw definitive conclusions, ”notes the French researcher.

A decrease in ventilation and resuscitation was observed in those tested.

None died, compared to three who had received a placebo.

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What is an interferon?

It is a protein, usually synthesized by the human body to fight against respiratory infections.

However, the Sars-CoV2 coronavirus, responsible for Covid-19, has the ability to inhibit the synthesis of this interferon, thus preventing the defense system from acting.

The concentrated inhalation of these chemically synthesized interferons therefore replaces the natural defenses.

In France, beta interferons (also called cytokines) are used by injection, in particular to fight multiple sclerosis.

  • Aquitaine

  • Picardy

  • Bordeaux

  • Amiens

  • Hospital

  • Coronavirus

  • Didier Raoult

  • Covid 19

  • Research

  • Health