Prevention is the best strategy to fight Covid-19, an epidemic caused by a coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2. Whole world is waiting baited breath for a clinically approved vaccine.
There is no specific medicine or drug-formula that checks the spread of SARS-CoV-2. One and only antiviral treatment currently-approved is giving doses of Remdesivir to Covid-19 patients requiring hospitalisation.
Remdesivir was originally introduced for the treatment of Ebola, another virus generated infectious illness. It was developed to shorten the recovery time of hospitalised Covid-19 patients.
However, World Health Organisation (WHO) recently said Remdesivir neither shortens the stay of Covid-19 patients in hospital nor reduces the mortality among-those infected by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
This is disappointing news for the world , which is finding it difficult to urge beyond this debilitating virus. However, a recent study has found a replacement solution which will be as effective as an antiviral treatment for Covid-19.
THE RESEARCH
The study has concluded that gas nitric oxide, a cell-signaling molecule that the body produces naturally, might be a possible treatment for Covid-19 by giving relief to patients and even containing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Nitric oxide is an oxide of nitrogen — don’t confused with another oxide of nitrogen, nitrous oxide(laughing gas) which have a great role to play in global warming .
The gas molecule may-be a vasodilator — it dilates blood vessels to extend the blood flow — and thus has anti-inflammatory effects on body.
Additionally, nitric oxide has antiviral properties. A study conducted in Sweden, has now found evidence that nitric oxide inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2. The scientists conducted an in-vitro study using monkey cell cultures to reach the conclusion.
The scientists found that gas inhibited a key enzyme called protease that the virus SARS-CoV-2 must generate copies of itself.
COVID-19 TREATMENT HOPE
On the idea of their findings, the scientists have theorised that inhaling nitric oxide can improve the outlook for severe Covid-19 patients.
The scientists write in paper, “Based on this study and former-studies on SARS-CoV in vitro, and during a small clinical test . We conclude that nitric oxide could be applied for clinical use within the treatment of COVID-19 and other human coronavirus infections.”
Their prescription is backed-by earlier research. A 2005 study found that gas inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV, the virus caused worldwide panic in 2002-03. SARS-CoV is extremely almost-like SARS-CoV-2 and is additionally the reason why the present pandemic causing virus is known as so.
SARS-CoV had caused an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which is analogous to Covid-19.
In past studies, nitric oxide to be effective against a variety of viruses including the herpes , hantavirus & coxsackievirus (an enterovirus that causes hand foot and mouth disease).
In the case of SARS, another study had found that inhaling nitric oxide at low concentrations improved oxygenation of blood in patients affected-by the infections. It also proved to be an efficient antiviral agent .
Covid-19 patients, who develop serious complications, complain of a sudden decline in oxygen-levels in their blood. It’s against this backdrop that the researchers have suggested inhalation of nitric oxide as an efficient sort of treatment for Covid-19 and an enormous hope to fight the coronavirus pandemic. That is, until the world gets a prove-vaccine.
