Covid19: We are almost there, A Perfect Cure for Everyone!

Covid19: We are almost there, A Perfect Cure for Everyone!

Large Scale Coronavirus Experiment with Live Piglets using DRACO!

Executive Summary
The world pandemic due to Covid19 needs a fast cure that has no side effect therapeutic for the treatment of Covid19 patients. The vaccine will take a long time for the mass market and only works for those who have not contracted the virus. DRACO, a polypeptide (a protein) is a potential cure to Covid19 and many other infections due to its unique property of broad-spectrum which kills the virus factory (infected cells) and not the virus itself. Without factory, the virus cannot replicate anymore and thus be eliminated from our body. DRACO is already proven to work in vitro in human cells and animal cells and in vivo for mice. Although we know DRACO is safe and effective in mice, we still need to raise funding to test DRACO on large scale live piglets to make sure it is safe and also works on piglets. If the outcome of this experiment is as expected, we will publish a paper and make available all data public for further investigation, and possible future human trials soon with more funding. The funding we need is RMB 1,000,000 (about USD150,000), and we need about three months to complete the experiment. We will provide regular update here if we reach our funding goal.

Introduction
Due to the world pandemic of Covid19, we urgently need a cure for Covid19 to address the world problem with more than 1.4 million people confirmed infected, and more than 82,000 deaths registered as of 8th April 2020 [1]. There are also far more unreported cases in the world and this pandemic will need to be addressed as soon as possible.

Vaccine is a good candidate to solve the pandemic but experts said it will only be available in 12-18 months from now [2]. Moreover, the cost of the vaccine is not cheap, and how do we vaccinate the whole world? Cost, logistics and time are main hurdles. And vaccines are only effective for those who still have not contracted the virus. And thus this crowdfunding aims to find a cure using DRACO to treat coronavirus. DRACO is not a vaccine!

What is DRACO?
In a nutshell, DRACO – the virus factory killer! DRACO is a broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics, which is proven effective in vitro against 15 viruses, and found it was effective against all of them — including including dengue flavivirus, Amapari and Tacaribe arenaviruses, Guama bunyavirus, and H1N1 influenza. [3].

The paper also demonstrated that DRACOs can rescue mice challenged with H1N1 influenza [3].

DRACO is also featured in MIT News with the title “New drug could cure nearly any viral infection” [4].

The drug works by targeting a type of RNA produced only in cells that have been infected by viruses. “In theory, it should work against all viruses,” says Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist in Lincoln Laboratory’s Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group who invented the new technology.

How does DRACO kill viruses?
DRACO works by killing the virus factory, not the virus itself! Virus is difficult to target and prone to mutation, and thus killing the virus directly will not be effective due to mutation. DRACO works by telling the cells that are infected by the virus to commit suicide using a polypeptide (a protein). If the infected cells do not commit suicide, they will produce more viruses! Cells that are infected by the virus have a different signature than normal healthy cells. DRACO using a unique identification method and only tells the cells that are infected to commit suicide, it will not affect the healthy cells and thus it is safe and effective against many viruses, since it is not targeting the virus directly.

How can DRACO be effective for Covid19?
The illness Covid19 is now attributed to a novel virus belonging to the coronavirus (CoV) family [5]. DRACO was already demonstrated effective against coronavirus nontoxic in vitro, and potentially suitable for either prophylactic or therapeutic administration. It is therefore theorized that DRACO will be effective against Covid19 and with no side effects, thus it is a very potential candidate to solve the current pandemic. And we need to prove that it works in experiments too, and thus we need to raise funding to conduct a large scale experiment on DRACO on piglets. Research of DRACO on coronavirus can also lead to potential cure of other deadly viruses currently with no treatment.

Proposal
We need to perform test on the efficacy of DRACO on live piglets. We will acquire 70 live piglets (SPF piglets) to conduct this large scale experiment. We choose piglets because of their anatomical and physiological similarities to humans [6].

Methodology
We will divide the piglets into 3 groups, each group with 20 piglets.

Group 1 (20 piglets)
Control group

Group 2 (20 piglets)
Intranasal injection of coronavirus* to all the piglets in this group.
Mock treatment for 7 days to all piglets in this group.

Group 3(20 piglets)
Intranasal injection of coronavirus* to all the piglets in this group.
DRACO treatment for 7 days to all piglets in this group.

*We are using PEDV coronavirus for this experiment.
**The selection of piglets into the group will be random.

Time Schedule
After one week of acclimation, two experimental groups (Group 2 and 3) are challenged with PEDV coronavirus using a nasal drip. The dose of intranasal injection is 2 × 10⁵ TCID₅₀. One day later, one of the above groups (Group 3) are treated with DRACO for 7 days, the others are mock-treated.

Blood samples are collected on days 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42 post challenge for the detection of PEDV coronavirus antigen and antibody. Rectal temperature and weight are measured on the aforementioned days. In addition, clinical symptoms are recorded and scored every day post challenge. Any animal deaths during the challenge are recorded and the mortality is calculated. On day 42, all animals are euthanized.

Funding Goal
We need a minimum of RMB 1,000,000 (around USD150,000) to conduct this experiment. Of course, the more money we raise, the faster we can conduct the experiment (with more manpower and equipment).

Below are our budget details:

Total Budget: RMB 1,000,000 (around USD150,000)

1. Cost of materials: RMB 730,000

（1）Reagents

（2）Consumable

（3）In vivo experiment

（a）For the isolation of porcine alveolar macrophage using 10 SPF piglets

（b）For the treatment of DRACO in piglets infected with coronavirus using 60 SPF piglets

2. Cost of testing and processing: RMB 70,000

3. Labor Cost/Journal: RMB 200,000

*SPF means Specific-pathogen-free

Funding Period
2 weeks

Team Members

Dr Guo Chunhe

Dr Guo Chunhe, has published 17 papers regarding pathogenesis and control of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus. A graduate from Sun Yat-Sen University. Currently a researcher in the Department of Biology and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. [7]

Dr Guo and Prof Dr. Liu has studied the efficacy of DRACO on porcine virus in vitro and found that it is effective against the PRRSV which is similar to coronavirus (PRRSV was previously belongs to the family coronavirus) with no toxicity. [8]

Email: [email protected]

Prof Dr. Liu Xiaohong

Prof Dr. Liu has published 105 publications related to virology and vaccine [9]. Prof. Dr Liu has a doctoral degree from South China agricultural University. Currently a Professor in Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.

Email: [email protected]

Clement Tham

Clement Tham, currently a lecturer and researcher in Inti International College Malaysia. A graduate from University of Malaya, passionate about data analytic and AI. He will assist in data analysis of the experiment using machine learning techniques.

Email: [email protected]

References
1. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

2. https://www.businessinsider.my/coronavirus-vaccine-quest-18-months-fauci-experts-flag-dangers-testing-2020-4

3. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0022572

4. http://news.mit.edu/2011/antiviral-0810

5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554776/

6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264500034_The_pig_as_an_animal_model_for_human_pathologies_A_proteomics_perspective

7. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chunhe_Guo

8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25772577

9. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xiaohong_Liu10

FAQ

1.

Question: Is there any update from time to time?
Answer: Yes, as soon as we reach our funding target, we will release update from time to time. We will also show some video and photo of our piglets during the experiment. We will publish all the updates here.

2.

Question: Will the result of the experiment make public? Any update of the experiment from time to time?
Answer: Yes, all the results will be made public and published in a peer-review paper. We will also give update from time to time here.

3.

Question: Why DRACO is better than other vaccine currently in testing by China, Australia and Europe? Any comparison for these approaches?
Answer: As stated in the introduction, vaccine usually takes 12-18 months and only effective for those who has not yet contracted the virus (infected). It is expensive, and vaccination for the world population require a lot of money, logistic and planning. Moreover, if the virus mutated, the vaccine may be ineffective against the new variants.

DRACO is not a vaccine! It is a broad spectrum anti-viral therapeutic. Think of it as an antibiotic for virus!

4.

Question: Overall project timeline and next steps
Answer: Please refer to our Time Schedule. We will try our best to expedite the experiment to the best we can due to the urgency of this pandemic. If we could raise more funding, the faster we can accomplish.

5.

Question: How do you manage so many piglets?
Answer: We will rent a small farm, and hire a few helpers to manage the piglets, in accordance to the best health standard that is possible. We will shoot video from time to time and update the community about our progress.