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There are thousands of viruses in our world. But only about 220 are known to infect humans. Most people don’t understand how viruses work. They are not living beings. They are very small packages of organic chemistry that enter an animal cell and take over its replication machinery simply to make more copies of themselves. Actually, no one knows why. Sometimes that kills the host, which also ruins their day. There are theories that blame viruses for everything from Alzheimer’s to immune system fatigue in old age.
Here’s the story of how a small New Zealand company could soon launch a drug that could change the course of humanity.
All things considered, the state of antiviral therapies is not so good. Technology has not yet advanced to the point where a viral infection can simply be stopped, as is the case with most bacterial infections. Current antiviral drugs are either vaccines (useful!) or simply change the odds a bit by interfering with some part of the viral life cycle, but not as effectively as desired. Many persistent viral infections are thought to contribute significantly to age-related forms of dysfunction, and there is currently very little that can be done about them.
This scenario is one of the reasons there was so much interest in our community in double-stranded RNA-activated caspase oligomerizer (DRACO) technology, an approach to selectively kill cells in which viral replication is occurring. DRACO offered the promise of being broadly and rapidly effective in killing infection by many different viruses, and doing so with little adaptation of the core technology from one virus to another, a vast improvement over the current state of the art. Initial results in animal studies seemed good.
However, as is often the case with promising technologies, the DRACO research program lost funding and was eventually stopped. It took some time, and a series of failed fundraising efforts, for another group to emerge to take up the flag and run with it. That group is Kimer Med, a New Zealand biotech startup. They appear to have made considerable progress in recent years, building their own version of DRACO without the help of the original researchers and improving the technology to the point where clinical trials are foreseeable.
What happened to Draco?
When Dr. Todd Rider announced his groundbreaking DRACO discovery in 2011, the world sat up and took notice. The headlines read: “Experimental drug could defeat any virus” and “A switch to kill all viruses.” Rider’s discovery was called “visionary” by the White House and named one of the best inventions of the year by Time magazine. But then nothing happened. Rider lost funding for it. He tried crowdfunding and failed, and since then very little has been heard about him and his revolutionary discovery.
Enter Kimer Med
Kimer Med was founded in March 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The founders were aware of Rider’s work and understood its potential, but were surprised to find that it had not progressed further, especially given the obvious need. With decades of scientific and business experience between them, they founded Kimer Med to pursue the life-saving promise of broad-spectrum antivirals. However, the journey has not been easy. Both Rider’s DRACO paper and associated patents omitted key information, probably intentionally. It took two years and millions in funding for KimerMed to analyze Rider’s results and fill in the gaps.
But as a result of this research, Kimer Med has been able to refine and develop the fundamental science, surpassing Rider’s results against human viruses. Recently, the company announced its success against a total of 10 different viruses, including all four serotypes of dengue, Zika, rhinovirus, influenza and HSV-2. Going a step further, Kimer Med has designed a platform for the rapid development of modular broad-spectrum antivirals. Using the platform, the company has been able to produce and test a wide range of antiviral compounds. The good news is that, based on the mechanism of action of its antiviral and the ability to tailor antivirals to avoid viral defenses, Kimer Med believes it is likely to be effective against many more viruses, as well as new, as yet unknown viruses ( “diseaseX” ).
Does this mean we can cure almost any viral infection?
DRACO’s initial promise was “kryptonite for viruses,” a miracle therapy that could wipe out all viral infections. “Based on our research over the past three years, we do not believe that is likely. What is possible, and well within our reach, is a family of broad-spectrum antivirals, each capable of treating a group of viruses. “For example, our lead candidate works against dengue and Zika viruses, both members of the flavivirus family, and we expect to see results against other flaviviruses as well.”
The implications for human health and longevity.
Around 220 viruses are currently known to infect humans and cause all types of diseases, in addition to causing or contributing to many other conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and multiple forms of cancer. Numerous latent viruses infect large numbers of the human population and are linked to the deterioration and dysfunction of the immune system (immunosenescence), resulting in increased vulnerability to infections and diseases as we age. Currently, there are approved antiviral treatments for only 11 of these 220 viruses.
Most current antiviral therapies simply suppress or inhibit viral replication. Curative antivirals are scarce and there is no treatment that can eradicate the latent infection. One of the possible advantages of Kimer Med antivirals is that they strengthen the innate immune system, helping it eliminate virus-infected cells. Instead of bursting and spreading the virus throughout the body, infected cells are eliminated triggering a natural process known as apoptosis: the orderly decomposition and elimination of damaged, infected or unwanted cells.
“Despite decades of antiviral development, we really haven’t seen anywhere near the same success against viruses that we saw with the first antibiotics, like penicillin and sulfas. Rider’s big idea was to target the dsRNA common to virtually all virus, rather than to something “It’s very specific, which is what most conventional antivirals do. This has opened the door to genuinely broad-spectrum antivirals and paved the way for us to create therapies for a wide range of currently unmet medical needs. Our goal now is to complete our pre-clinical research and advance our first antiviral to phase one clinical trials. Ultimately, this is where Rider failed and where we must now succeed.”
Attribution: FightAging.org February 2024