{"id":72228,"date":"2021-11-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/"},"modified":"2022-08-22T17:26:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T22:26:28","slug":"unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/","title":{"rendered":"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists around the world are racing to find viable treatments for COVID-19.<\/p>\n

University of Nebraska Medical Center Andre Kalil, MD, has joined the race by conducting multiple COVID-19 studies that were published in major journals.<\/p>\n

Dr. Kalil recently was first author of a study published in the major British medical journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The study evaluated whether the combination of interferon beta-1a and remdesivir compared to remdesivir alone might work as a COVID-19 treatment in hospitalized patients.<\/p>\n

It did not.<\/p>\n

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial Network, chose interferon beta-1a based on robust pre-clinical and clinical evidence that interferon could work in addition to other treatments. Interferon beta has had a strong biological rationale to fight infections such as COVID-19 and other viral infections based on in vitro, in vivo animal and human studies.<\/p>\n

"When interferon was tested in a rigorous study — that is, a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial — it did not show clinical benefits regarding recovery speed or survival in hospitalized patients with COVID-19," said Dr. Kalil, professor in the UNMC Department of Internal Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases. "For hospitalized patients with COVID-19, the use of subcutaneous (injected) interferon beta-1a cannot be justified anymore based on the results of our randomized controlled trial.<\/p>\n

However, Dr. Kalil said, other forms of administration, such as inhaled interferon in earlier stages of the disease, may have a different effect, and those are being studied by other research groups.<\/p>\n

"Our interferon beta-1a trial shows how essential it is to test all potential treatments, including the most promising ones, in rigorous randomized placebo-controlled trials," Dr. Kalil said. "Otherwise, these therapies may be used off-label for many years without providing any benefit to patients."<\/p>\n

So far, Dr. Kalil said, the most effective anti-viral therapy for hospitalized COVID-19 patients is remdesivir, which is the only FDA-approved anti-viral treatment, while baricitinib and dexamethasone are the most effective anti-inflammatory treatments.<\/p>\n

The study, called the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial 3 (ACTT 3), enrolled 970 hospitalized adults with COVID-19. UNMC was among the top enrollers for the 63 sites in the United States and abroad.  <\/p>\n

Read the Lancet article here<\/a>. An accompanying editorial is posted here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The study evaluated whether the combination of interferon beta-1a and remdesivir compared to remdesivir alone might work as a COVID-19 treatment in hospitalized patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":68147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-research","department-college-of-medicine","department-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\nUNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The study evaluated whether the combination of interferon beta-1a and remdesivir compared to remdesivir alone might work as a COVID-19 treatment in hospitalized patients.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The study evaluated whether the combination of interferon beta-1a and remdesivir compared to remdesivir alone might work as a COVID-19 treatment in hospitalized patients.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-12T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-22T22:26:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"705\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"406\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Victoria Cerino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Victoria Cerino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Victoria Cerino\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/c89f4ff647cb6f00d119f1f37d4ab143\"},\"headline\":\"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-12T06:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-22T22:26:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/\"},\"wordCount\":389,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/\",\"name\":\"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-12T06:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-22T22:26:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"The study evaluated whether the combination of interferon beta-1a and remdesivir compared to remdesivir alone might work as a COVID-19 treatment in hospitalized patients.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg\",\"width\":705,\"height\":406},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"Newsroom\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":153,\"caption\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/unmc\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/c89f4ff647cb6f00d119f1f37d4ab143\",\"name\":\"Victoria Cerino\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/9bf31c7ff062936a96d3c8bd1f8f2ff3\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified","description":"The study evaluated whether the combination of interferon beta-1a and remdesivir compared to remdesivir alone might work as a COVID-19 treatment in hospitalized patients.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified","og_description":"The study evaluated whether the combination of interferon beta-1a and remdesivir compared to remdesivir alone might work as a COVID-19 treatment in hospitalized patients.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","article_published_time":"2021-11-12T06:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-22T22:26:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":705,"height":406,"url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Victoria Cerino","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@unmc","twitter_site":"@unmc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Victoria Cerino","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/"},"author":{"name":"Victoria Cerino","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/c89f4ff647cb6f00d119f1f37d4ab143"},"headline":"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified","datePublished":"2021-11-12T06:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-22T22:26:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/"},"wordCount":389,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/","name":"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg","datePublished":"2021-11-12T06:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-22T22:26:28+00:00","description":"The study evaluated whether the combination of interferon beta-1a and remdesivir compared to remdesivir alone might work as a COVID-19 treatment in hospitalized patients.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Andre_Kalil_MD_1.jpg","width":705,"height":406},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2021\/11\/12\/unmc-researcher-finds-one-covid-treatment-not-justified\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UNMC researcher finds one COVID treatment not justified"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"University of Nebraska Medical Center","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","width":500,"height":153,"caption":"University of Nebraska Medical Center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","https:\/\/x.com\/unmc","https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/c89f4ff647cb6f00d119f1f37d4ab143","name":"Victoria Cerino","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/9bf31c7ff062936a96d3c8bd1f8f2ff3\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77726,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72228\/revisions\/77726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}