Coronavirus: What is the medical response in 2020 ?

Several months ago, the new coronavirus has emerged, but still no effective treatment is found, let alone validated until now. However, according to the investigations and in the hope of treating as many patients as possible, several promising tracks stand out. In this article, we will discuss the different treatments that medicine offers against this virus.

Zoom on treatments to fight against symptoms

Considering the observations made on the first cases of contamination, the main symptoms described refer to a respiratory difficulty. The disease also manifests itself through pulmonary complications which are essentially pneumonia type; acute respiratory infections, shortness of breath, coughing and even fever. Apart from these types of symptoms, other manifestations such as digestive and ocular have also been recorded in some confirmed cases.

The set of possible treatments that can be envisaged to allow the treatment of confirmed cases are therefore those that are able to fight against the different symptoms observed. Since it is a new virus, it has been authorized so-called experimental treatments that must be tested with a significant margin of caution, in order to achieve conclusive results. In the meantime, there is a global race to find a cure or a specific drug with a common goal.

The antiviral Remdesevir: Promising treatment to fight and eradicate Covid-19

From the beginning, Remdesivir is a drug that has been mentioned in the treatment of the new Coronavirus COVID-19. This drug had been proven not only in the fight against Ebola, but also in the treatment of Mers and Sars-Cov-1. The drug has thus been authorized by the European Medicines Agency since Thursday, June 25, 2020 to be conditionally marketed for use in the treatment of Covid-19.

It should be mentioned that this treatment based on the drug Remdesivir had already been authorized in some countries such as the United States of America. In the same perspective, the next challenge for Europe is to have the agreement of the European Commission.

According to the experiments, it appears that the treatment based on this antiviral drug allows to fight effectively against the virus. This is the case of a French patient who was cured with this drug.

But what is Remdesevir in concrete terms? ?

It is a small molecule that would be able to spread over the entire bodyall organs of the human body, and it is thus diffused in the lungs which are target organs of the new coronavirus. The cured French patient would have been treated by intravenous during 10 days and according to the results, he would have tolerated it perfectly. Following this experiment, Remdesivir shows its potential effectiveness in the fight against the virus (this time in the laboratory).

However, it should be mentioned that at that time there was no data to justify its effectiveness and tolerance in humans. It should also be noted that even if several studies, such as those conducted in China, have not concluded that this antiviral drug is effective, it remains a rather promising avenue for the fight against Covid-19. In addition, another study shows that this drug could bring considerable benefit to infected people if it is combined with another treatment: the antihypertensive diltiazem.

After a series of tests, Stimulation of the innate immune response of the epithelium from the action of diltiazem has been shown to give remdesivir greater potential, even at low doses. In fact, apart from the fact that it is a very expensive drug, remdesivir presents a certain toxicity in vitro. Before the launch of a clinical trial, probably as early as next winter, preclinical tests on animals will continue.

Treatment of severe forms with Anakinra

The latest study conducted on this treatment was published on May 29, 2020 and according to the report, the results obtained are promising. A treatment based on Anakinra could then be envisaged to fight effectively against the disease Covid-19. On the market, Anakinra is known as Kineret which is its commercial name.

It is often prescribed to fight several forms of infections, including inflammatory diseases. Among these, we can mention, for example, the Muckles-wells syndrome, rheumatism or rheumatoid arthritis.

A group of 52 patients received the treatment as a test. And at the end of this test treatment, only about a quarter of the patients treated with Anakinra were transferred to the intensive care unit against a percentage of 73% for those who did not receive this type of treatment.

Indeed, it appears that this treatment is able to act on the storm of cytokines. This is in fact an inflammatory mechanism that can cause the immune defenses to go into overdrive, which researchers generally refer to as the basis of severe forms of Covid-19. At this stage of the disease, several other organs are affected. This is about the heart and kidneys.

However, even if the results of the studies carried out are described as “encouraging”, the researchers still hold a margin of caution as it is the case since the beginning of the research. And for good reason, the number of patients included in the study on the effectiveness of anakinra against the virus remains low and therefore cannot be reliably concluded. Thus, research is continuing in the same direction, under different conditions and on other patients.

Dexamethasone: The drug that makes real improvement in survival possible

The results of the studies testing dexamethasone as a treatment for Covid-19 were published in a press release on June 16. Dexamethasone is nothing more than a steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is generally used for the treatment of asthma. According to the tests, it reduces by about one third the mortality of the victims of this disease who are hospitalized and present some severe respiratory complications.

This treatment is the very first that has been revealed as the drug that will improve survival in patients who are infected with the virus. This is therefore a rather satisfactory result. The survival benefit is no longer in doubt. Thus, for patients who require oxygen, dexamethasone dexamethasone becomes the standard treatment.

This major scientific breakthrough has been praised by the World Health Organization (WHO), which congratulated the British government as well as the University of Oxford and all the hospitals, research laboratories and patients in the United Kingdom who took part in the studies. For more information about the laboratories’ research work, go to explicyte.com.

The hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin combination

The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin is the treatment that is the source of contradiction and divergent opinions among researchers. Note that hydroxychloroquine is a derivative of chloroquine. After having been authorized for experimentation in hospitals, the hydroxychloroquine treatment has been questioned by a study according to which the experimental use shows not only a lack of effectiveness, but also dangerous side effects for the patients. Therefore, WHO asks that all experimentation be stopped in order to clarify the inconveniences of this treatment.

The research continues, even though several other researchers have subsequently questioned the effectiveness of the treatment.