GS-441524 is the main plasma metabolite of the antiviral prodrug Remdesivir, and has a half-life of around 24 hours in human patients. Remdesivir and GS-441524 were both found to be effective in vitro against feline coronavirus strains responsible for feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a lethal systemic disease affecting domestic cats.
Generally, if a cat's immune system is healthy and mature, the white blood cells should fight off the infection or virus and allow the cat to build up an immune response or antibodies. However, cats with FIP have an immune defect or deficiency causing the white blood cells to replicate, rather than fighting, the virus, resulting in the spread of the virus throughout the cat’s body. Depending on the extent of the immune response, cats have either Wet FIP or Dry FIP.
GS441524 is a type of nucleoside analogs. It is made up of an alternative substrate and RNA-chain terminator of viral RNA dependent RNA polymerase. In simpler terms, it inserts itself into the chain reaction thus stopping the replication of the virus. By blocking the spread of the virus to other cells, GS441524 enables a complete immune response to take place in the FIP infected cats.
