ZEAB Therapeutic Limited is pleased to announce its involvement in Covid-19 Research and its possible treatment.

ZEAB Therapeutic proposes the design of two drug moieties which will take a remedial and corrective approach respectively. The drug moiety X, derived from natural sources, will act as a remedial treatment which will act by boosting the immune system, fighting off Covid-19 infection and leading to recovery from the disease. Secondly, we propose a gene therapy that will regulate the gene expression of polymorphic variations of such genes. These proposed drug therapies will be validated using in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo knockout and disease models.

COVID-19 is a respiratory condition caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that has been recognised as a pandemic disease due to its global spread. It is characterised by a myriad of both respiratory and non-respiratory symptoms. A subset of people with a higher risk of infection are the elderly and those with comorbidities such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and cancer.

Research has established that phase II detoxifying enzymes play a major role in detoxification, cellular metabolism, and the prevention of oxidative stress in living systems. It is well known that oxidative stress is a major factor in the pathogenesis of viral respiratory infections.

Alterations in the structure, function, or level of expression of the genes coding for these enzymes could alter the ability of the cell to inactivate toxins, thereby aggravating the progression of infection.  The genes encoding for phase II detoxifying enzymes can display a deletion polymorphism resulting in a null allele. Homozygosity for the null alleles, namely the null genotypes, results in the absence of corresponding enzyme activity. These polymorphisms have been clearly indicated in various comorbidites including those with a higher risk of infection with Covid-19.  Such hypothesis has been established and validated in research literature.