Liver disease drug could be repurposed to protect against COVID, study finds

Almost three years into the pandemic, we’re still regularly seeing hundreds of thousands of new COVID cases recorded each day worldwide. In a new study, involving a combination of miniature organ models, donor organs, animals and humans, we’ve shown that a drug used to treat liver disease could be repurposed to protect against COVID-19.

Vaccines are one of the most potent weapons in our pandemic response, but not everyone can benefit from them. COVID vaccines work by training our immune system to recognise and destroy SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. As such, they’re not effective for people with a poorly functioning immune system, for example patients taking medications to suppress immune function after an organ transplant.

The virus can also disguise itself to avoid the immune system recognising it, by mutating into new variants and thereby lowering vaccine effectiveness.