Chloroquine, zinc tested to treat COVID-19 infection
In the United States and Europe, a handful of clinical trials have begun to test ways to keep healthcare workers and other vulnerable people safe from coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Most are testing drugs called chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine that have long been used to prevent and treat malaria, and also as a therapy against rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The hope is that, given before infection or early in the course of the disease, the drugs will protect someone against infection and illness from the virus, or, if they do, will ensure that their case is mild. But whether these drugs will help, hurt or do nothing remains an open question.
The virus that causes COVID-19 uses a backdoor to enter the cell. As it enters, it is exposed to an acidic, vinegar-like environment, which is actually needed for the virus to get all the way inside. Hydroxychloroquine, metaphorically keeps the cap on the vinegar, Greene says, preventing acidification. Thus, there is a scientific rationale for how this drug might exert an antiviral effect.
Mahir Ozmen, a professor of surgery at the Istinye University, School of Medicine in Istanbul, Turkey, says he thinks the best way to use chloroquine is in combination with zinc and vitamins C and D. He is running a clinical trial, testing to see whether this combination protects health care workers and their immediate families – including his own.
Ozmen, who is collaborating with a chest medicine specialist, an intensive care physician, and two infectious disease experts, says he intended to include only 80 participants, but 98 quickly volunteered. He began providing prophylactic therapy 2 weeks ago, and expects to complete the trial by July.
Ozmen says, "Hydroxychloroquine helps the zinc get inside the infected cells to destroy the virus, and vitamins A and D support immune function". He gives volunteers a low dose of hydroxychloroquine every 3 weeks, and a vitamin tablet every day – or every other day for people prone to kidney stones. At the end of the trial, each participant will be checked for antibodies to COVID-19, suggesting an infection, whether they realised it or not. This kind of prophylaxis will give us the time to develop a vaccine that will offer protection to everyone.
In perhaps the fastest-moving, large prophylaxis trial, researchers at Duke University are leading a US$ 50 million collaboration across hundreds of American healthcare systems, which will test 15,000 volunteers. Half the health care workers will take hydroxychloroquine, and half a placebo. Other drugs could be added to the study if they prove promising for preventing or lessening infection, says Adrian Hernandez, the trial's principle investigator.
In France, researchers are running a trial with 1,200 healthcare workers to test prophylactic use of hydroxychloroquine or a combination of two HIV drugs, Lopinavir and Ritonavir, which failed as a treatment in people with severe COVID-19 infections but may work as prevention. It is expected to take 6 months.
In a 40,000-person trial led by the University of Oxford in England, participants in Asia will receive chloroquine or a placebo, and in Europe, hydroxychloroquine or a placebo. That trial is expected to take a year.
Robert Salata, chairman of the department of medicine at UH Cleveland Medical Centre, is including 4,500 patients in his trial of an antiseptic that healthcare workers will spray into their mouth three times a day. The antiseptic, called ARMS-I, made by ARMS Pharmaceutical of Cleveland, is already present in lower concentrations in some mouthwashes, he says.
Source: WebMD