Posted on 03/15/2020 5:19:30 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Brisbane researchers say they are within reach of finding a cure for COVID-19 but need donations to accelerate the research.
In lab testing, two drugs have stopped Coronavirus in its tracks and a clinical trial on humans is ready to begin.
Renowned RBWH Infectious Diseases Physician Professor David Paterson who is overseeing the research said the drugs are “effective” but they are yet to determine whether “one is better than another”.
He’s hoping these drugs are the panacea the world so desperately needs.
“Potentially down the road, it’s even something a general practitioner could prescribe,” Paterson said.
Safe for use Both medications are safe for use in Australia, one treats malaria, the other HIV and in test tube studies both effectively kill the virus.
The drugs have already been given to patients infected with COVID-19 abroad and on home soil with promising results.
When asked how close we are to a cure, Paterson said there is “potential” that this drug “could cure the infection”.
But without human trials, these drugs can’t be administered with any certainty.
“We are going to coordinate with hospitals in NSW and Victoria so that we can all work on a common protocol to get the answers as quickly as possible,” Paterson said.
Funding
If the trial is successful, within three months researchers should know whether these drugs are effective in treating COVID-19.
The trial can begin within weeks but researchers need $750,000 to fund it.
The RBWH Foundation has agreed to find the money, launching a campaign for donations from the public.
“If we have an effective drug that can cure the infection, we certainly believe we are going to save lives,” Paterson said.
I’d take both if I were to be at risk.
Wasn’t there another old malaria drug that a thread here suggested might be effective?
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
Replying to
@davidasinclair
Treatments that seem to work are chloroquine (a cheap malarial drug), Gilliad’s remdesivir with interferon-beta (in clinical trials from COV-19), plasma from recovered patients, and a steroid (methylprednisilone). Doctors in US are now using remdesivir off-label...
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
SARS-CoV2 attacks pneumocytes in lung, intestine, heart & cells lining blood vessels. In lung, CoV2 prevents cells from making biological detergents to keep lung passages open. Acute respiratory distress follows. O2 levels fall..but there’s may be a dangerous underlying process..
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
..new work out of China yesterday says COVID-19 might also involve abnormal blood production. CoV genes 1 & 8 are predicted to interfere with heme, the red compound in blood, by kicking out the iron. Would explain why chloroquine seems effective as a treatment #CoronaVirusUpdate
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
Chloroquine is predicted to prevent orf1ab, ORF3a and ORF10 from attacking heme (red in red blood cells) and inhibit the binding of ORF8 to heme. Although 99% of the virus is seemingly stable, what’s disturbing is ORF 1 and 8 are mutating the fastest...
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
..Positions nt28144 in ORF 8 and nt8782 in ORF1 are evolving. Samples out of China show they’d mutated 30.53% (29/95) and 29.47% (28/95), respectively. I’m currently figuring out why these are the ones mutating and how that would change the situation...
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
It may explain why diabetics and elderly are more susceptible. Blood sugar levels usually increase as we get older, increasing the amount of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) (I’ve tweeted about this before). The authors suggest these people would be more susceptible to because...
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
...the virus could more easily disrupt the heme in red blood cells. If so, the virus is very smart: it destroys the lung so patients can’t take up oxygen AND reduces the body’s ability to carry oxygen. (For this & other reasons, you should eat healthily the next 2 years)...
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
These ideas are testable. COVID-19 should correlate with HbA1c levels (seems true). Patients should have abnormalities in heme/porphyrin & they might have higher levels of free iron in tissues & blood. I will update with more info as it comes in. Stay safe. Below are links...
David Sinclair, PhD AO
@davidasinclair
·
Mar 14
Blood, HbA1c, and chloroquine
https://tinyurl.com/w28et45
CoV2 mutations
https://tinyurl.com/secncmf
Symptoms
https://tinyurl.com/ubncbgn
Susceptibility/Risk
https://tinyurl.com/vexo5vl
Fatality
https://tinyurl.com/sb8qpza
Therapies
https://tinyurl.com/vrm7f5j
Remdesivir
https://tinyurl.com/teb8neb
Peace symbol
Some of these “cures” sound worse than the disease, and may leave you with a highly-elevated cancer risk.
If it’s an existing approved drug, then safety isn’t a concern. Just effectiveness.
“Coronavirus Treatment: Australian Researchers ‘Within Reach’ of Cure”
FDA would take 10 years and 5 million deaths to approve it.
There is not nearly enough diversity in these medical R&D teams. Even if they find the cure, I will protest it
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3824936/posts?page=4#4
Thanks for the info & links!
Ping to list of meds being tried.
I’m watching Australia, but not for this. Should be an indicator of how heat sensitive Covid-19 is. Closer to China than us and China is Australia’s main trading partner. Still too soon and too few numbers too tell.
World tracker here:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is shown to be a zinc ionophore - allowing zinc to readily enter cells.
Intercellular zinc has been shown to stop the replication of the virus once it invades a cell.
“but need donations to accelerate the research.”
donations? serially? if this was bona fide research, they’d have zero issues in getting all the legitimate funding they’d need .... governments are throwing money at this right now ...
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