A group of Chinese and European scientists meeting in Hangzhou City yesterday said cinanserin, currently used to treat schizophrenia, has been found effective in inhibiting the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

"The finding means that cinanserin could be directly prescribed to prevent SARS or treat SARS patients if the fatal epidemic mounts a comeback," said Professor Peter Kristensen, from Denmark's University of Aarhus.

He was speaking at the annual meeting of the Sino-European Project on SARS Diagnostics and Antivirals (SEPSDA) that was held in the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

Cinanserin was one of 15 drugs identified by SEPSDA as effective against SARS, but it is the only one that has been used by human patients, having been prescribed since the 1970s. The finding was published in this month's Journal of Virology.

The other 14 compounds have to go through lengthy animal testing before being used to treat people, said Kristensen.

The three-year SEPSDA program, funded by the EU and involving eight Chinese and European institutions, aims to find 50 medicines to treat SARS. In the coming two years, scientists from China, Germany, Poland and Denmark will continue to search for the remaining 35.

Scientists working for the program also confirmed the identification of two viruses homologous to the SARS one in animals from the Netherlands and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Professor Rolf Hilgenfeld, from Germany's University of Lübeck, said that both newly-found viruses and the SARS virus are variations of an ancient one, which has long been harbored among animals.

(China Daily June 20, 2005)