The antiviral drug remdesivir, originally developed for the treatment of hepatitis C and used among other drugs for the treatment of COVID-19, is able to change the dynamics of the release of neurotransmitters, at least in vitro (in laboratory conditions). This discovery was made by Ukrainian scientists after analyzing the membranotropic effects of remdesivir, the results of which were published by the scientific journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Biomembranes, Semyon Yesilevsky, a leading researcher at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, reports on Telegram..

“It turned out that the drug not only readily integrates into cell membranes, but is also able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and accumulate in brain tissues.. It turned out that in the membranes of neurons, it does not just sit passively, but can change the dynamics of the release of neurotransmitters (at least in vitro),” the report says..

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Remdesivir is an amphiphilic drug, that is, due to its physical characteristics, it must be incorporated into the lipid membranes of cells. “It was clear to everyone, but, surprisingly, no one has ever investigated whether remdesavir somehow affects the membranes and what it can lead to,” the scientist comments..

According to Esilevsky, it is still unclear whether the property of remdesivir discovered by Ukrainian scientists can lead to any negative or positive consequences, but the drug turned out to be a much more interesting molecule than another banal modified nucleotide that blocks viral RNA polymerase.