An experimental drug used to treat strokes could also help treat COVID-19, researchers and the drug’s manufacturer claim.
The drug TXA127 works by replacing a key lung enzyme that the novel coronavirus has a tendency to suppress. There’s some evidence that this replacement enzyme could help to calm the overactive immune response—the so-called cytokine storm—that’s common in severe COVID cases.
But it’s too soon to say for sure. The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved TXA127 for use on people. The first major clinical trial of the drug is just getting organized at Columbia University in New York.