Source: Reuters
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Scientists described the preliminary results of the experiments and the possibilities of using this drug in an article published by bioRxiv, an electronic scientific library.
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“Our experiments with“ dummies ”of the brain show that sofosbuvir completely eliminates all the disorders that appeared in the nervous tissue after the virus penetrated. This suggests that the drug can not only protect adults from the effects of the virus entering the brain, but also prevent SARS-CoV-2 from getting into the fetus from the body of a pregnant woman, ”the scientists write.
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Almost from the first days after the outbreak of a coronavirus infection, scientists know that SARS-CoV-2 affects cells not only in the lungs, but also in other body tissues, including inside the mucous membrane of the nose, esophagus, blood vessels, heart, and other organs .
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Even at the first stages of the development of the epidemic, Chinese doctors discovered hints that the virus could penetrate into peripheral nerve cells and into brain tissue.
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Recently, doctors from Germany and France found that coronavirus cannot multiply inside the brain cells, but at the same time it can cause their mass death and accelerate neurodegenerative diseases.
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Protecting the brain from the virus
In a new study, a group of neurophysiologists and molecular biologists led by a professor at the University of California at San diego Alison Muotri watched as a new type of coronavirus penetrated the miniature “models” of the brain that scientists had grown from stem cells. Thanks to this, researchers have figured out how to protect human nerve cells from such problems.
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Initially, biologists created these structures in order to test drugs for autism and other neurological disorders. However, the COVID-19 epidemic forced them to change plans. Processing the brain with these viruses, biologists studied how it interacts with neurons and checked how various antiviral drugs prevented it from penetrating into nerve cells.
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These experiments confirmed the findings of their colleagues: the virus can indeed penetrate the brain cells and cause serious disturbances in its work.
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In addition, scientists found that sofosbuvir, a cure for hepatitis C, significantly reduced the proportion of infected cells and eliminated the disturbances in the nerve endings that coronavirus caused.
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Sofosbuvir, scientists suggest, can eliminate some of the strange symptoms experienced by many carriers of coronavirus infection, including encephalopathy, hallucinations, and sudden attacks of epilepsy. In addition, the medicine can protect patients from loss of taste and smell, one of the main and first symptoms of the development of coronavirus infection.
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It should be added that the article was not reviewed by independent experts and editors of scientific journals, as is usually the case in such cases. Therefore, conclusions from it and similar articles should be treated with caution.
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