Preliminary study claims DRDO's anti-COVID drug 2-DG effective against all variants, reduces multiplication of virus

New Delhi [India], June 16 : A new study has claimed that DRDO's anti-COVID drug 2-DG is effective against all variants of COVID-19 and the drug reduces virus multiplication.
The study, published on June 15, has not yet been peer-reviewed. It was conducted by Annat Narayan Bhatt, Abhishek Kumar, Yogesh Rai, Dhiviya Vedagiri and others.
"In this study, we used 2-Deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) to target and inhibit the metabolic reprogramming induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our results showed that virus infection induces glucose influx and glycolysis resulting in selective high accumulation of the fluorescent glucose/2-DG analogue, 2-NBDG in these cells. Subsequently, 2-DG reduces the virus multiplication and alleviates the cells from infection-induced cytopathic effect (CPE) and cell death," read the study.
The drug has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) and Dr Reddy's laboratories.
On June 1, the DRDO said that the anti-COVID drug 2-DG is approved for emergency use as an adjunct therapy to the standard of care in the treatment of coronavirus patients in hospital settings.
The DRDO said that anti-COVID drug 2-DG can now be given to COVID-19 patients under the care and prescription of doctors. It also issued some important guidelines with regard to its anti-COVID-19 drug.
"Ideally, 2-DG should be prescribed as early as possible by doctors for moderate to severe COVID-19 patients for a maximum duration of up to 10 days," it said.
DRDO further said that uncontrolled diabetes, severe cardiac problem, ARDS, severe hepatic and renal impairment patients have not been studied yet with 2-DG, and hence caution should be exercised.
The 2-DG should not be given to pregnant and lactating women and patients below 18 years.