Repost of Dr. Coombs on his Theralase Research"
Dr. Kevin Coombs, PhD, Professor, Department of Medical Microbiology, will lead the research for the University of Manitoba. One of Dr. Coombs' interests is the investigation of how COVID-19 impacts genes and proteins in lung cells. In addition to Theralase's anti-COVID research, Dr. Coombs will lead a multi-institutional consortium using a powerful research tool, called SomaScan, and next-generation sequencing, to rapidly determine how COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus) - and a variety of other coronaviruses - affect large numbers of genes and proteins in different human cells, which are the normal target of the COVID-19 virus.
Dr Coombs stated, "I have had the opportunity to independently evaluate Theralase's PDCs, on an in-vitro pre-clinical basis, as a potential new anti-viral drug; specifically targeting COVID-19. I have completed a preliminary analysis of how they affect two enveloped viruses very similar in make-up to COVID-19; specifically H1N1 Influenza and Zika virus, and am impressed with the high efficacy kill rates, both with and without stimulation."
Dr. Coombs went on to say, "From this initial data, Theralase's PDCs have a very high anti-viral activity at a very low concentration, in the nanomolar range, even when not stimulated. It is also noteworthy that this effect was observed at concentrations well below toxicity levels observed in mammalian cells or mammalian patients; therefore, this approach would provide a very high efficacy to safety ratio. Thus, the PDCs effective concentration is comparable to, or better than, many other anti-virals that my lab has tested and this virus killing capacity is further improved when the PDC is light activated, alone or in various formulations."
Dr Coombs also stated "Based upon the above results, I believe further studies are strongly warranted. Theralases's PDCs show great promise as a potential therapeutic. Given the similar physicochemical properties of all enveloped viruses, including the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, I believe Theralase's PDCs represent an important new anti-viral technology platform and I am very interested in further exploring how these PDCs could be used against COVID-19." Dr. Coombs continued, "We are planning to use a Direct Electron Detector ("DED") enhancement to a powerful TALOS200 electron microscope, which allows multichannel, high-resolution imaging and precise compositional analysis to enable dynamic microscopy applications at sub-nanometer resolution. I will use this technology to look at structures of coronaviruses after they have been treated with Theralase's formulations for cellular destruction. I look forward to working with Dr. Arkady Mandel and the Theralase team in the development of this exciting technology."