Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/POdAfXsCW28   Remdesivir, Gilead Pharmaceutical’s experimental drug coded GS-5734, is an antiviral nucleotide analog that currently shows the most promise for treating our current novel coronavirus disease.  A just published study from from Canada’s University of Alberta explains how this pharmaceutical, originally developed to treat Ebola, actually works.   Remdesivir is metabolized to remdesivir-triphosphate that vigorously blocks the participation of adenosine triphosphate, better known as ATP, in the synthesis of new viral RNA.  No new viral RNA, no viral replication and the disease fades.   Remdesivir, affectionately called RDV, has shown significant clinical effects on CoVid19 victims in China.  More extensive testing is underway but so far, it’s all good news.    Calvin J Gordon, Egor P Tchesnokov, Joy Y. Feng, Danielle P Porter, Matthias Gotte. The antiviral compound remdesivir potently inhibits RNA-dependent RNA polymerase from Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus