The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given permission for the emergency use of drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe Covid-19 cases, said Defence Research and Development Organisation on Saturday.
Clinical trial have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalized patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.
According to DRDO, the patients treated with 2-DG showed faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) on various endpoints in the efficacy trends.
2-Deoxy-d-glucose is a glucose molecule which has the 2-hydroxyl group replaced by hydrogen, so that it cannot undergo further glycolysis.
A recent clinical trial showed 2-DG can be tolerated at a dose of 63 mg/kg/day, however the observed cardiac side-effects (prolongation of the Q-T interval) at this dose and the fact that a majority of patients’ (66%) cancer progressed casts doubt on the feasibility of this reagent for further clinical use.
