DRDO’s drug 2-DG effective against all variants of Covid-19, curtails cell death: Study

According to a recent study conducted, anti-Covid-19 drug 2-DG developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has proven to be effective against all the strains of Covid-19 and simultaneously curtails the multiplicity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As per the abstract analyzed by the news agency ANI, the preliminary study depicted that 2-DG drug relieves the cells from infection-induced cytopathic effect (CPE) and cell death.

Earlier, on May 17, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched the DRDO’s Covid-19 drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG). When the drug was released into the market, the Centre claimed that this anti-Covid-19 drug has the capacity to decrease a patient’s average recovery time by a span of two and a half days and also cuts down on the oxygen demand of the body by 40 percent.

On June 1, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the drug for emergency use as an adjunct therapy for treating moderate to severely infected Covid-19 patients.

This novel study for reviewing DRDO’s 2-DG drug was held by Abhishek Kumar, Dhiviya Vedagiri, Annat Narayan Bhatt, Yogesh Rai, and others, and has not been peer-reviewed, according to ANI reports.

In the study, 2-DG was utilized to inhibit the ‘metabolic reprogramming’ triggered by Covid-19 infection in patients. The results elicit that the Covid-19 infection leads to a high influx of glucose in the body, and the process of glycolysis takes place in the cells, which substantiates to selective high accumulation of the fluorescent glucose/2-DG analogue and 2-NBDG. 2-DG further on, curtails the multiplication of the virus and frees the cell from CPE and cell death.
DRDO’s 2-DG will be sold in the market under Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories at a price of Rs. 900 per sachet, but the drug will be sold at discounted prices for the Central and state government.

However, medical practitioners have warned against excessive usage of the drug due to its lack of trials and studies on patients having co-morbidities like uncontrolled diabetes, severe cardiac problems, and even renal impairment, and ARDS.

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