David Sinclair, PhD
@davidasinclair
Since my Harvard lab closed yesterday, I've been reading and interpreting this week's published papers on
#COVID19. What follows is a thread of information, my interpretation, links to sources & predictions. Let's start with what you need to know
THREAD:
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...
...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 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...
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).
The authors suggest these people would be more susceptible to because 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)
Would supplementing with iron or eating more food with high iron content help?
If this is correct, yes. More Vitamin C helps iron absorption.
@Wally
Eco