Effects of Gs-441524 on Clinical and Hematochemical Parameters of Cats With Effusive Fip Over 60 Days Follow-Up

Abstract

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is an important disease characterized by granulomatous changes in various organs including the ocular and central nervous system. FIP infection is referred as the best candidate for antiviral drug development studies due to the ineffectiveness of vaccines and being a cause of high mortality. The most important antiviral drugs developed against RNA viruses are nucleoside analogues such as GS-441524. In this study, GS-441524 was used in the treatment of three naturally infected cats with ocular lesions diagnosed with effusive FIP. The treatment of cats was planned as GS-441524 (5 mg / kg, SC, daily) administration for 12 weeks along with fluid therapy on the admission day. The treatment process included follow-ups with clinical and laboratory examinations on the admission 5 th , 15 th , 30 th , 60 th , 90 th and 120 th days. On the 5 th day, clinical signs including ocular abnormalities and on the 30 th day, laboratory findings were significantly improved in all 3 cats. While the cats were expected for monthly follow-ups, it was learned that the cats died on the 58 th , 60 th and 62 nd days. It was concluded that GS-441524 (5 mg/kg/day, SC) has been proven to be beneficial for improving clinical, laboratory findings and animal welfare. However, it was evaluated that clinical studies involving more cases are required in order to determine the clinical efficacy of nucleoside analogues and investigate the causes of deaths occurred on the 58 th , 60 th and 62 nd days of the treatment period with no symptoms that would grab the attention of the owners.

Renal Ultrasonography Findings in Cats with Feline Infectious Peritonitis

“…Although aforementioned findings are non-specific, combination with other existing clinical findings may increase the index of suspicion of the related disease (Larson 2009). Considering the symptom duration of the present study in the cats with naturally developed non-effusive FIP before admission to the hospital (11.64±6.24 days), these findings may be associated with the progression of the disease (Kipar et al 2006;Larson 2009;Lamb et al 2017;Gülersoy and Maden 2021).…”

“…Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a progressive and fatal disease caused by virulent feline coronavirus (FCoV), especially in cats younger than 2 years of age with an immature immune system (Pedersen 2009). There are 2 pathotypes of FCoVs: feline enteric coronavirus (FECV), which is the enteric biotype and feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV), which is the virulent one (Kipar and Meli 2014;Gülersoy and Maden 2021). FIPV is a mutated form of FECV, and causes a wide variety of clinical manifestations.…”

“…FIP is challenging to diagnose, especially in the absence of effusion, due to the lack of pathognomonic clinical and laboratory findings. Therefore, the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of each diagnostic test should be evaluated separately in order to suspect and diagnose FIP (Lappin 2003;Gülersoy and Maden 2021). The disease is fatal when not treated with novel protocols or when treatment is delayed (Gülersoy and Maden 2021).…”

“…Therefore, the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of each diagnostic test should be evaluated separately in order to suspect and diagnose FIP (Lappin 2003;Gülersoy and Maden 2021). The disease is fatal when not treated with novel protocols or when treatment is delayed (Gülersoy and Maden 2021). Thus, accurate diagnosis is very critical.…”

Comparison of Clinical and Laboratory Findings at Different Clinical Stages in Cats Naturally Infected with Feline Coronavirus

“…FIP has three major clinical forms, including the effusive (exudative), dry (non-effusive, non-exudative, granulomatous, parenchymatous) and mixed form. FIPV infection might affect many organs, including the intestines, liver, kidneys, eyes and central nervous system (CNS) [3,7] leading to variable clinical, laboratory and pathological manifestations, depending on presence of vasculitis, and the affected tissues [2,8].…”