08:00 PM
Thursday 06 August 2020
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Books – Syed Metwally
A drug used to treat erectile dysfunction appears to have the ability to treat infected Coronavirus patients, especially those with serious conditions, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”.
Aviptadil, proceeding to the next stage of clinical trials after promising results, approximately 300 patients with moderate and severe symptoms of coronavirus in five hospitals in the United States, will be given the drug.
Drug manufacturers said that about 16 patients in the United States no longer needed ventilators, and recovered from a respiratory failure within four days of getting the medication.
Doctors in Houston, USA, confirmed that the drug helped a patient on the verge of death recover.
The drug protects lung cells from infection by reducing inflammation, and Brazilian researchers have also shown that it can prevent the Corona virus from entering cells and multiplying.
Aveptadil is combined with another ingredient called Ventolamine to treat erectile dysfunction.
When Corona appeared, the American Israeli company “NeuroRx” entered into a partnership with the Swiss drug company “Relief” to develop the drug.
The company said today, that it has obtained permission to conduct trials of the drug Avipetadel, to prevent respiratory failure in Covid-19 patients.
The first part of the second and third stage of the trial, which is expected to start before September, will include those with critical conditions who have corona in hospital.
If promising results emerge, the experiment will be expanded to include patients at home, in order to prevent the need for hospitalization.
The drug will be inhaled because it allows the drug to reach the depth of lung tissue, and has already undergone clinical trials for “ARDS”, a serious lung disease within known complications of Corona.
On August 1, doctors from the Houston Methodist Hospital revealed that the drug helped a patient to recover quickly after suffering a corona, undergoing lung treatment, and was discharged from the ventilator within four days.
Similar results have been observed in more than 15 Corona patients, who have been treated successfully, and rays have shown that they have a rapid improvement in blood oxygen, and have shown that the lungs are pumping oxygen all over the body again.
However, given that very few people have been treated with avitadil, it cannot be said conclusively that the drug avitadil has actually improved patient outcomes or if it is just a coincidence.
The trial will, through five US hospitals, actually prove whether or not Avitadil treats Corona patients.
How does the drug work?
There are certain cells in the lungs called the alveolar cell of the second type, which are necessary to transport oxygen to the body, so without them a respiratory failure occurs, the cells are targeted by the Corona virus, which acts as an entry for the virus to multiply, here comes the role of the drug that binds to the lung cells and prevents SARS- Cove-2 that causes corona to multiply.
Researchers at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Brazil found that the drug Aveptadil inhibits the reproduction of the virus in human lung cells.
The drug also prevents the production of inflammatory cytokines, which can cause severe lung risks.
Cytokines are proteins in the body that give signals between cells, and play an important role in normal immune responses.
When the body releases a lot of inflammatory cytokines in one go, it is called a “cytokine storm”, it is believed to be a major factor behind lung damage, organ failure and death in some Coronavirus patients.
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