Britain allocates 8.4 million pounds funding for COVID-19 immunity research

Britain has allocated over 8.4 million pounds ($11 million)  funds to support at least three COVID-19 studies in the UK, according to reports. UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health Research, has sought to assist the scientists in funding to accelerate research into the SARS-CoV-2 varying symptoms in different patients. The research would help medical fraternity decode why some people’s bodies have better immunity response to the respiratory virus over others, for who, it might prove to be life-threatening. 

In a joint statement on August 27, the funding bodies wrote that the these studies will improve the treatment of patients and inform the development of vaccines and therapies. Further, they added, most importantly the research would determine when and how immunity persists or whether people can become re-infected with COVID-19. As per reports, 6.5 million pounds of the total funding will be shared with the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium for the research into effective immunity development and response. Another 1.5 million would be allocated for the humoral immune response molecules that strengthen the immune system to fight the disease. A total of 400,000 pounds is allowed for COVID-19 research and its impact on lungs and other organs. 

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In one such research conducted by University of Oxford clinical scientists Martin Landray and Peter Horby, physicians around the world are being advised on drugs for the treatment of the critical patients of COVID-19 in the ER. As per the research published in American Association for The Advancement of Science, health experts at UK megatrial called Recovery, have been testing existing drugs as therapies for coronavirus. The pair administered lopinavir and ritonavir, two antivirals known to curb HIV, and studied data of 1596 patients. In a press release, the investigators announced that no significant difference in the death rate and advised health practitioners accordingly. “This could have worked. And it was a bust,” Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute said in the study. “It was really important to clarify that,” he added.

Breakthrough Dexamethasone

Earlier in the same month, Recovery (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 therapy) delivered results on two treatments for COVID-19. A breakthrough treatment of dexamethasone, a cheap steroid, was found to have reduced deaths by one-third in patients on a ventilator. Investigators also found that hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug controversially touted by President Trump for COVID-19, did not have desired response on hospitalized patients.

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