HANGZHOU, June 19 (Xinhuanet) A medicine currently used to treat schizophrenia
was found to be effective in inhibiting the coronavirus of the deadly Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),announced a group of Chinese and European scientists in
Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, on Sunday.
Cinanserin, being in therapeutic usage against the mental disease since the 1970s, was
identified as a cure for the SARS epidemic and is the only ready-to-use medicine among
the total 15 possible anti-SARS remedies recommended by scientists participating in the
Sino-European Project on SARS Diagnostics andAntivirals (SEPSDA) after careful
pathological studies.
"The finding means that cinanserin could be directly prescribed to prevent the SARS
disease or treat SARS patients if the fatal epidemic mounts a comeback," said Prof. Peter
Kristensen, from Denmark's University of Aarhus, here on Sunday.
The 14 other medicinal solutions have to go through lengthy animal tests before being
used to treat human patients, said Kristensen, a participant of the threeyear SEPSDA
program, which was funded by the European Union and involved eight Chinese and
European institutions.
กกกก The ambitious program, launched in 2004, aims to find 50 chemical
compounds to treat SARS. In the coming two years, scientists from China,
Germany, Poland and Denmark will continue to search for the rest 35
compounds, according to sources with the program.
In addition, scientists working for the program also confirmed here
on Sunday the finding of two homologous SARS coronaviruses inanimals from
the Netherlands and Hong Kong,China respectively.
Prof. Rolf Hilgenfeld, from Germany's University of Luebeck, said
that both the newly-found viruses and the formerly detected SARS virus
were variations of an ancient virus, which had been harbored among
animals for ages but remained unidentified.
The German scholar also said other latent coronaviruses could pose
dangers to human beings as the SARS virus did. "People should closely
monitor such viruses and their variations to effectively prevent them
from endangering humans," said Hilgenfeld. Enditem
