There are over 69 drugs that are effective to counter the effects of COVID-19, a team of researchers has confirmed this just last Sunday night.
There are already medications that are being used to treat other diseases that have been repurposed to treat COVID-19, which is the illness caused by the coronavirus, which now plagues our little green planet. Some experts say it may be faster than trying to invent a cure from scratch.
What Examples of Drugs Are Effective Against COVID-19?
Haloperidol is an antipsychotic drug that is used to treat people with schizophrenia and some cases of Tourette's syndrome. Chloroquine is one such drug; an antimalarial medicine has also been confirmed to have some positive effects on countering the spread of COVID-19 inside your body. However, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warns that there was only "anecdotal evidence" that it might work.
The World Health Organization announced as well that they would begin trial on the Chloroquine, among other drugs to fight the virus.
Other drugs that help counter the virus would be some that you wouldn't even think about, like the Food and Drug Administration, approved drugs against cancer, Parkinson's disease, and hypertension.
Why Are There Meds That Seem Unrelated Work Against COVID-19?
The researchers investigated around 26 of the coronavirus's 29 genes. They then found about 332 human proteins that the virus will target and continued from there. Some viral proteins seem to target just one human protein, while others are capable of targeting multiple proteins at once.
So the researchers looked for drugs that also latch to human proteins that the coronavirus targets as well where there they spread. This led to the team discovering about 24 drugs that are already approved by the FDA.
Some Patients Who Are High Risk Already Are In Clinical Trials
There are more drugs that may be considered in the list, and some patients are already undergoing their clinical trials, mainly drugs that kill bacteria by gumming up the cellular machinery that they use to build proteins. Some drugs also attach to human proteins, which a current study might lead to a possibility of treatment for antivirals.
If ever the research succeeds, it will most definitely be a scientific achievement. Imagine, an antiviral created after only a few months a virus that no one knew existed until late December.
No Proven Drugs To Kill the Virus...Yet
As of date, the drugs that are listed are effective but not to the point that it eliminates the virus completely. The best thing you can do when you get sick and get the virus is to go to the hospital and get medical treatment. Proper supportive care that entails you getting enough oxygen, managing fever, and sometimes using a ventilator to push air into the lungs when you can't do it yourself anymore or have difficulty in doing so. This gives your immune system a chance to fight the virus within.
Nevan Krogaan, a biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who is not leading a new study warned people that there are many side effects to each drug, especially Chloroquine.
"You need to be careful," he said. "We need more data at every level."
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