R OYA L S O C I E T Y T E A PĀ R A N G I
LOCKDOWN RESEARCH-DELAY LEADS TO
possible COVID-19 treatment COVID-19 upset research plans at the start of a Catalyst: Seeding grant led by Associate Professor Kathleen Mountjoy, University of Auckland, but the research delay led to serendipitous findings and promising new research avenues on the link between age, hormones, obesity and inflammation as well as a possible COVID-19 treatment. The NZ-USA team of experts were studying the effect of disrupting melanocortin hormones (melanocyte stimulating hormone) on mouse body weight when COVID-19 upset research plans. At the start of lockdown when the experiments on the mice were stopped, none of the mice were obese, but at the end of the lockdown, only the male mice were obese and had developed diabetes. This serendipitous finding was doubly fortuitous because, during lockdown, Kathleen had been in discussions with US collaborator Dr Joel Elmquist (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center) on why obesity and diabetes are two of the biggest risk factors for COVID-19 complications.
Thus, the aged male mice that developed obesity and diabetes were a good model to research this question. Earlier work by others had shown that melanocortin hormones could have anti-inflammatory effects. Their follow-up pilot studies showed that mice that lack melanocortin hormones appeared more susceptible to inflammation-induced sickness. They are now pursuing more research into whether melanocortin hormone drugs (which are already approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration) could be used as a treatment for COVID-19 and other diseases. Catalyst: Seeding grants support new small and medium pre-research strategic partnerships that cannot be supported through other means. They are administered by the Society with funding from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. VIEW MORE ON CATALYST: SEEDING bit.ly/2020HL-38
“We propose that our mouse model, and the additional models we are making, are critical for the first experiments testing FDA-approved drugs as potential therapeutic options for patients suffering from COVID-19 and other diseases.” KATHLEEN MOUNTJOY
38
