Oral administration of the novel oral influenza endonuclease inhibitor AL-794 has been shown to significantly reduce viral load, symptoms, and mucus weight at a dose of 150 mg in a human challenge study.
In findings published July 26 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID), investigators from the drug’s manufacturer, Janssen, described a phase I clinical trial in which 61 subjects were inoculated intra-nasally with influenza virus (A/Perth/16/2009 H3N2). A total of 42 of the subjects became infected, confirmed via analysis of nasopharyngeal swabs for influenza RNA, using a qualitative integrated cycler polymerase chain reaction assay on day 4 of the trial. Infected study subjects received either 50 mg of AL-794, 150 mg of AL-794, or placebo twice daily for 5 days.
After 5 days of treatment, subjects who received 150-mg doses of AL-794 had a mean peak viral load of 2.77 log10 50% tissue culture infectious doses (TCID50)/mL, compared to 3.54 log10 TCID50/mL in those who received 50-mg doses, and 3.72 log10 TCID50/mL in those who received the placebo.
