Might be old news to the scientists and doctors here, but pages 1494-1495 help me to understand why the Aussies were so excited after their work with apabetalone, Covid, and those organoids.

Confidence % just got notched up another one!

Note: no mention of apabetalone, but very informative.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351024566_Repositioned_Drugs_for_COVID-19-the_Impact_on_Multiple_Organs/link/60810aa7881fa114b41b85b4/download

The Effect of CQ and RDV on 3D Human Heart Organoids

Although iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes

constitute an excellent model for human cardiotoxicity studies

[201–203], recent advances in stem cell technologies have

facilitated the emergence of human stem cell–derived organlike

model systems (organoids) which allow for higher degree

of precision and physiological relevance [204, 205].

Organoids recapitulate many organ properties, structure, and

physiology to a significant extent, thus arguably constituting a

better model than traditional 2D cell cultures containing a

single cell type and no microenvironment [206]. In contrast,

organoids have multiple cell types that interact with

cardiomyocytes, along with matrix native to the heart, providing

physicochemical properties that are better able to mimic

the heart in vivo. Organoids are particularly useful to study

unapproachable disease states in humans and have been used

to model a wide range of tissues and disease conditions with

great success [206, 207], including SARS-CoV-2 infection of

human lungs and intestine [51, 205, 208]. Using a recently

developed protocol for the generation of highly sophisticated

human heart organoids (hHOs) from hiPSCs [209], the cardiac

effects of CQ and RDV were explored with hHOs. Given

the higher complexity in the organoids, including different

cell types, morphology, and extracellular matrix, we expected

the organoids will be more robust than cardiac monolayer

cultures.