Dr Caroline Li is collaborating with London NHS hospital trusts and researchers in China on a clinical trial to study the use of a rheumatoid arthritis drug in improving COVID-19 outcomes.<\/p>\n
The project, funded by the charity LifeArc, has been granted \u00a31.3 million to\u00a0start clinical trial testing of leflunomide,\u00a0a drug licensed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, in hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Caroline and the University of\u00a0Kent will lead the AI part of the project to understand the underlying clinical\/physiological data. The focus will be on exploring data science and developing interpretable AI models in the clinical trial to discover the potential of the repurposed drug.<\/p>\n
Leflunomide has previously been investigated in a small pilot study conducted in Wuhan, China. Patients with moderate or severe clinical symptoms of COVID-19 who were treated with leflunomide demonstrated favourable clinical outcomes with a shorter clinical recovery time compared to the placebo arm, and no side effects were observed. This LifeArc funded study now aims to explore these initial findings in a larger patient cohort.<\/p>\n
A detailed description of the project can be found here:\u00a0https:\/\/www.lifearc.org\/funding\/covid-19-funding\/DEFEAT-COVID-study\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"