It’s just about two and half months from the discovery of the first patient infected with the Novel Corona virus strain which was later named as Sars Cov-2. WHO named the infection caused by this virus as Covid-19. Unlike other viruses of the SARS family which included MERS and SARS this new virus strain has become more dangerous and contagious as the COVID-19 has become a pandemic. As of now more than 180 countries around the glob are fighting against this deadly disease. But countries like Italy and Iran are still finding it really difficult to contain the disease as the death toll from this infection is going up rapidly.
From the discovery of this deadly condition scientists around the globe started working on possible drugs that can contain this virus. Late last month a group of scientists from Sri Lanka led by Dr. Sameera R. Samarakoon proposed a group of drugs that most probably will stop the virus from binding to the host cells. They had used a computer based method to model drug interactions with the viruses.
Similarly many other drugs and drug combinations have been proposed as possible cure for Covid19. Given below are few of the drugs that are under trials against Covid19.
1. Chloroquine
Chloroquine is a drug that was discovered in 1934 as a treatment for the flue. Later it was discovered that this drug is highly effective against the Malaria parasite as well, and was used to contain the Malaria pandemic But the drug was discontinued as the Malaria parasite developed resistance against it. But in some parts of the world where the resistance is not present, it is still being used as an anti-malarial drug.
During the Covid19 outbreak in china a group of scientists from Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academy of Military Medical Sciences began to use chloroquine as a treatment to this deadly disease. But it was in 2005 that a paper published in the journal of Virology showed Chloroquine and its derivative Hydroxychloroquine as possible treatments for the SARS virus. The recent study by those Chinese scientists found that Chloroquine is effective against the SARS Cov2 virus spread in cultured cells. But we are yet to see the effectiveness of this drug in humans as there have not been any clinical trials done to prove that. Besides that, some countries including United States have already started using this against Covid19.
At the same time countries should be really careful in using this drug as am overdose can be lethal. And also, doctors should pay a good attention to the other drug interactions and side effects of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in treating Covid19.
US president Donald Trump in a tweet on last Saturday mentioned Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycine as a possible treatment for Covid-19. But he came under heavy criticism from the science community in US as the French study her referred was not a controlled clinical trial, and had studied only 20 patients.
Yesterday (21st March, 2020) Government Medical Officers Association submitted a concept paper to the COVID19 task force highlighting the combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycine as a possible treatment for Covid19.
2. Favipiravir
Favipiravir is an anti-viral drug manufactured by a Japanese firm called Toyama Chemical, and showed promising results against many RNA viruses. This drug is commercially available as T-705 and Avigan.
According to Wikipedia, in animal experiments, Favipiravir has shown activity against influenza viruses, West Nile virus, yellow fever virus, foot-and-mouth disease virus as well as other flaviviruses, arenaviruses, bunyaviruses and alphaviruses.
Scientists in China began to use this drug against the ongoing Covid19 and on March 17, 2020 they announced this drug as a possible treatment for Covid19.
3. Remdesivir
Remdesivir is an antiviral drug developed by a firm based in US called Gilead Sciences. They developed this drug as a treatment for Ebola and Marburg viruses. Since both these viruses are RNA viruses later experiments showed activity against some other RNA viruses including previously known Corona viruses. In a recent study published in Journal of Biological Chemistry a group of scientists described the mode of action of this antiviral drug in halting viral replication. In the study scientists described how Remddesivir alter the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase halting the reproduction of genetic material of the virus.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) of United States announced on February 25th that remdesivir, is being used in the country’s first clinical trial of an experimental treatment for COVID-19.
But US, and Some other countries including China have already started prescribing Remdesvir against Covid19 as a compassionate drug.
4. Anti Covid-19 Vaccines
Unlike an anti-viral drug a vaccine is something that make the body ready against a viral or other microbial attack. Scientists of many public and private institutions around the world are now engaged in a race against time and each other to produce effective vaccine against Covid19.
Apart from the above there are many other drugs and drug combinations under study and hopefully we will soon be able to find a clear solution to this deadly Covid19 pandemic which have put almost the entire world under lockdown.
