We found and tested 47 old drugs that might treat the coronavirus: Results show promising leads and a whole new way to fight COVID-19

[IThinkImTurningJapanese]

We found and tested 47 old drugs that might treat the coronavirus: Results show promising leads and a whole new way to fight COVID-19

The more researchers know about how the coronavirus attaches, invades and hijacks human cells, the more effective the search for drugs to fight it. That was the idea my colleagues and I hoped to be true when we began building a map of the coronavirus two months ago. The map shows all of the coronavirus proteins and all of the proteins found in the human body that those viral proteins could interact with.

In theory, any intersection on the map between viral and human proteins is a place where drugs could fight the coronavirus. But instead of trying to develop new drugs to work on these points of interaction, we turned to the more than 2,000 unique drugs already approved by the FDA for human use. We believed that somewhere on this long list would be a few drugs or compounds that interact with the very same human proteins as the coronavirus.

We were right.

Interestingly, a seventh compound – an ingredient commonly found in cough suppressants, called dextromethorphan – does the opposite: Its presence helps the virus. When our partners tested infected cells with this compound, the virus was able to replicate more easily, and more cells died.

 

[Learner1]

Progesterone is on their list!

 

[IThinkImTurningJapanese]

Progesterone is on their list!

Wasn't there something earlier about men being more vulnerable?

Anyway, I'm more fascinated with their finding regarding dextromethorphan. I'm not in the habit of using cough suppressants so I feel quite lucky, but this information could be life saving for some.

 

[pattismith]

" Two potent antihistamines, clemastine and cloperastine, also displayed antiviral activity, as did the compound PB28 and the female hormone progesterone. "

Wasn't there something earlier about men being more vulnerable?

Anyway, I'm more fascinated with their finding regarding dextromethorphan. I'm not in the habit of using cough suppressants so I feel quite lucky, but this information could be life saving for some.

Yes you are right, it's very important!
About male susceptibility, I wonder if the male behaviour could be involved.
Males are more risky, they are less likely to follow the sanitary measures, and thus are more exposed to bigger viral loads, I believe. (Not the only factor at play of course, but...)

 

[Rebeccare]

About male susceptibility, I wonder if the male behaviour could be involved.

At first, doctors thought that male behavior was the reason why so many more men were getting seriously ill. In looking at the numbers of people who were sick in China, they assumed that the gender disparity was because so many more men smoked than women. But this difference between the numbers of men and women who get seriously ill has been consistent across countries, even countries where not all that many people smoke, so doctors started to think that biological differences between men and women were playing a big role. Part of it could be hormones.

Here's what this article from the New York Times says:

As the novel coronavirus swept through communities around the world, preying disproportionately on the poor and the vulnerable, one disadvantaged group has demonstrated a remarkable resistance. Women, whether from China, Italy or the U.S., have been less likely to become acutely ill — and far more likely to survive.

Which has made doctors wonder: Could hormones produced in greater quantities by women be at work?

Now scientists on two coasts, acting quickly on their hunches in an effort to save men’s lives, are testing the hypothesis. The two clinical trials will each dose men with the sex hormones for limited durations.

Last week, doctors on Long Island in New York started treating Covid-19 patients with estrogen in an effort to increase their immune systems, and next week, physicians in Los Angeles will start treating male patients with another hormone that is predominantly found in women, progesterone, which has anti-inflammatory properties and can potentially prevent harmful overreactions of the immune system.

“There’s a striking difference between the number of men and women in the intensive care unit, and men are clearly doing worse,” said Dr. Sara Ghandehari, a pulmonologist and intensive care physician at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles who is the principal investigator for the progesterone study. She said 75 percent of the hospital’s intensive care patients and those on ventilators are men.

And pregnant women, who are usually immunocompromised but have high levels of estrogen and progesterone, tend to have mild courses of the disease. “So something about being a woman is protective, and something about pregnancy is protective, and that makes us think about hormones,” Dr. Ghandehari said.

Scientists who study sex differences say that both biological differences in immunity, as well as behavioral factors are at play. Men smoke more almost everywhere, they say; men also wash their hands less. While women appear to have more robust immune systems, these experts say, the causes are complex and multifactorial, and hormones are only part of the picture.

If such sex hormones were the primary protective factor for women, then elderly women with Covid-19 would fare as poorly as elderly men, because women’s reproductive hormones plummet after menopause, said Sabra Klein, a scientist who studies sex differences in viral infections and vaccination responses at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

But that’s not the case, she said.

“We see this bias across the life course,” Dr. Klein said. “Older men are still disproportionately affected, and that suggests to me it’s got to be something genetic, or something else, that’s not just hormonal.”

Research has shown estrogen may have an effect on a protein known as angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), for example. The coronavirus uses ACE2 receptors on the surfaces of cells as an entry route, and ACE2 is regulated differently in men and women, said Kathryn Sandberg, director of the Center for the Study of Sex Differences in Health, Aging and Disease at Georgetown University.

 

[IThinkImTurningJapanese]

Yes you are right, it's very important!

Indeed, wouldn't many people be taking dextromethorphan from the first signs of respiratory distress?