Breakthrough drug could treat long COVID and prevent re-infection

A new drug developed by QIMR Berghofer could transform the treatment of COVID-19 by potentially protecting against infection by any SARS-CoV-2 variant and reversing the persistent inflammation that is a major driver of debilitating long COVID. The internationally peer reviewed findings of the second major study demonstrating the pre-clinical effectiveness of the peptide-based drug, NACE2i, have been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. Epigeneticist and co-lead author, Professor Sudha Rao who heads QIMR Berghofer’s Gene Regulation & Translational Medicine Group, said the drug was tested repeatedly by independent laboratories using a variety of pre-clinical models. “The results of this second major study are really exciting. It shows our drug, NACE2i, stops the virus replicating and protects against re-infection,” Professor Rao said. “We believe it could be a highly promising adjuvant to boost the effectiveness of existing vaccines providing long-lasting