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A Cataldo EMS team transports a suspected Covid-19 patient from Chelsea to Massachusetts General Hospital on April 23, 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
David Degner | fake pictures
Medical researchers are testing whether inhaled nitric oxide could help treat patients with the coronavirus.
A series of ongoing studies and clinical trials at Massachusetts General Hospital aim to discover whether family treatment can help save the sick, prevent people from being intubated, and even keep healthcare workers free from infections
As of Friday, more than 3.25 million people had contracted Covid-19 worldwide, with 233,439 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
USA only USA It is dealing with about a third of all reported coronavirus cases, having passed the 1 million infection milestone earlier this week.
The virus outbreak, which first emerged in late 2019, has meant that countries around the world have had to effectively shut down. Confinement measures have been implemented in 187 countries or territories in an effort to try to stem the spread of the pandemic.
There are no known vaccines or specific antiviral drugs against Covid-19. But, scientists around the world are trying to speed up work on effective treatment. US health officials USA They say that developing a vaccine will take at least 12 to 18 months.
What is nitric oxide?
Nitric oxide is a colorless, tasteless, short-acting gas that widens the blood vessels in the lungs when inhaled. It is often used as the first line of treatment for premature babies deprived of oxygen.
The compound simply consists of one part nitrogen and one part oxygen, the two most common gases in the atmosphere.
In 1998, pharmacologist Louis Ignarro shared the Nobel Prize for discovering nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. It was subsequently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1999, and doctors have used the compound for a wide range of medical conditions since then.
Viagra pills on display
Raupach | fake pictures
It was in the 1990s that nitric oxide also played a central role in the development of erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, as the main ingredient in the blue pill, sildenafil, makes the relaxing effect of nitric oxide on the body be more powerful and increases blood flow.
How does it work?
Stuart Harris, a treating physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, told CNBC by phone that four studies were underway to explore whether inhaled nitric oxide could be used to treat the coronavirus.
In each of the studies, Harris said the hospital was looking at some different results, including trying to keep people alive in the intensive care unit, working to prevent people from intubating, and trying to ensure that workers health do not contract disease.
“The lungs can be thought of as a market that gathers air and blood,” Harris said. The way that Covid-19 is “more likely” to be fatal is that it hurts that market and prevents the blood from providing the body with enough oxygen.
“Nitric oxide is a smooth muscle relaxant. Therefore, blood vessels, typically very low pressure in the lungs, relax them and help carry blood to where nitric oxide goes. Essentially, it produces a market efficient so that the lungs can do their job, “he explained.
Preliminary data has suggested that inhaled nitric oxide may have a virus-killing effect on the coronavirus, Massachusetts General Hospital says in an online statement. It is due to the genomic similarities between Covid-19 and those that caused the SARS and MERS outbreaks. Studies during the SARS outbreak in 2004-2005 showed that nitric oxide was effective in killing that virus.
To be sure, the effectiveness of nitric oxide in treating the new coronavirus has not been studied before.
The FDA has participated in ongoing discussions with Gilead to make remdesivir available to Covid-19 patients after the first results of a drug trial have shown improvement among patients.
But, to date, there are no approved treatments for coronavirus.
When asked if he believed that nitric oxide studies could lead to an effective treatment for coronavirus, Harris replied: “We don’t know and that is why we do studies. But, it is definitely worth looking at closely and If we look at the panoply of other studies that are being done, frankly, I put more money into the mechanisms that we propose than some of the others. “
Separately, the researchers discontinued a study that tested the antimalarial drug chloroquine as a possible treatment with Covid-19 last week.
The drug gained widespread international attention after two small studies published in France last month found that coronavirus infection cleared up much faster for patients taking it compared to a control group.
However, citing a high risk of death, scientists have ruled out the trials, warning that it should generate some degree of public skepticism towards enthusiastic drug claims. President Donald Trump had touted chloroquine as a possible “game changer” in the fight against the virus.
– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.
