CONNOR BAMFORD, THE CONVERSATION
17 APRIL 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the world, eliminating thousands and bringing economies to their knees, doctors, scientists and federal governments are on the lookout for safe and effective treatments to help those who are ill.
And yet a big issue with COVID-19 is that there is, yet, no treatment.
Though there are treatments that can minimize the symptoms– such as problem breathing– they do not resolve the underlying cause: the virus.
The concept is that treating the signs will help prolong a patient’s life and purchase time for their own immune systems to begin and remove the infection.
While research study into associated coronaviruses over the last few decades has brought some appealing looking drugs, just large medical trials on clients with COVID-19 will be able to reveal exactly whether these interventions are safe and efficient.
Sadly, these type of large trials take some time to perform, however they are ongoing.
The World Heath Company (WHO) announced it has actually helped to introduce four “mega trials” on COVID-19 and there are countless more smaller ones collaborated in nations worldwide.
The WHO-backed trials are concentrating on drugs that are believed to straight obstruct SARS-CoV-2– the virus strain that triggers COVID-19– from reproducing inside our lungs. Below are some of the main drugs these trials are looking at.
Remdesivir
This is an intravenous antiviral drug that was developed to obstruct infection with associated coronaviruses and even Ebola, and is one of the drugs the WHO is assisting to investigate.
Remdisivir has actually currently been shown to work versus SARS-CoV-2 in cells in a meal in a lab in addition to in mice infected with the virus. Remdesivir particularly targets crucial viral proteins involved in making new copies of the infection and avoids them from working.
Remdesivir has actually currently been used in some COVID-19 clients in the US and appears safe, however large trials are required to truly understand if this is the case.
Lopinavir/ritonavir
This is a drug mix used against infections like HIV. It works in a comparable way to remdesivir by obstructing essential viral proteins called “proteases”.
Lopinavir/ritonavir has also been shown to be effective versus SARS-CoV-2 in laboratory cells as well as in mice and is being tested along with an antiviral drug called interferon beta.
This is presently used to treat numerous sclerosis and can enhance the natural defences of the body’s cells against the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine
Both of these drugs are presently used to treat malaria and the autoimmune disease lupus.
Chloroquine has been evaluated against lots of different infections due to the fact that in the laboratory it can obstruct viruses– consisting of SARS-CoV-2 – from getting inside cells positioned in a meal therefore avoid infection.
Outside the lab, chloroquine has not been demonstrated to have an extensive result at avoiding disease and there is minimal evidence so far that it can work for COVID-19, despite receiving a lot of hype from President Donald Trump.
But once again, big trials are required and the WHO is supporting these.
Care ought to be observed with chloroquine as it can have substantial negative effects in certain individuals and may even block the immune reaction– the desired result in lupus treatment.
2 other choices
The above possible treatments all work by blocking some key element of the virus infection machinery using little molecules. 2 other kinds of treatments are likewise being checked out in trials that operate in a various way.
The first is passive immunisation which is the transfer– or transfusion– of prospective protective antibodies from somebody who has actually been contaminated and recuperated from COVID-19 to somebody who is at high-risk or is experiencing a SARS-CoV-2 infection.
This so-called “convalescent sera” (which is a purified blood item from someone who has actually recuperated from COVID-19) can obstruct SARS-CoV-2 in cells in a dish in the lab and has the possible to assist develop treatments.
Passive immunisation for COVID-19 is being evaluated in trials across the world therefore far results seem to suggest it is safe to use.
Another sort of possible treatment works by blocking parts of our own body immune system that are likely overreacting to SARS-CoV-2 infection and contributing to the damage in our lungs.
In the minimal studies that have actually been carried out on COVID-19, it seems that in some extreme cases our immune response goes into overdrive without having the ability to clear the infection and this can increase the intensity of the disease. When this happens, high levels of swelling is found in the lungs.
Potential treatments that take a look at blocking the immune parts connected to this intensity have begun. That stated, severe care must be taken when controling the immune reaction throughout an infection as in the lack of other therapies we depend on our immune action to restrict the infection duplicating.
So although specific treatments for COVID-19 are not yet offered, drugs are being checked and medical trials and starting to yield results. This, combined with the further knowledge that scientists are gaining about SARS-CoV-2 will assist massively up until a vaccine appears. 
Connor Bamford, Research Fellow, Virology, Queen’s University Belfast.
This post is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the initial post.
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