top of page
Search

The many treatments of Covid-19

  • Writer: My Medical Message
    My Medical Message
  • Jul 29, 2022
  • 3 min read

Arguably the single best treatment for COVID-19 has to be the vaccine. Vaccines, if taken before signs of infection, will effectively mitigate the risk of getting COVID-19 and, when taken alongside the booster shot, greatly reduce one’s likelihood of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms! However, in the unfortunate scenario that you do get hospitalized with COVID-19, the world of medicine is there to help you with that too. There are many treatments to help combat COVID-19 infections, and each works differently, yet all provide the same goal: killing off the infection in your body.


 

We’ll start with a fairly popular one:

Remdesivir. Also known by its product name as Veklury, Remdesivir has a chemical formula of C27H36N6O8P. The drug was originally made for Hepatitis C, but its effects in combating the Ebola and Marburg viruses have been investigated. Remdesivir was emergency-use authorized starting November 2020 in over 50 countries, including the USA. Remdesivir is a prodrug or an inactive drug that can be metabolized by the body into an active form.


Remdesivir is given via intravenous injection, and is a very long insertion procedure that can range anywhere from 30 to 120 minutes! Doctors do frequent blood tests to check liver function after the drug is injected. The Remdesivir, after entering the body and being metabolized, turns into the active form Remdesivir triphosphate, which tricks the virus into thinking it's part of its viral RNA genome. The RDV-TP, now in the viral genome, causes delayed chain termination, severely affecting the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to replicate, and also prevents viral RNA synthesis. However, Remdesivir causes side effects such as severe headaches, body aches, nausea, fever, chills, etc. Also, the drug gained considerable controversy when it failed the November 2020 solidarity trials for COVID-19 treatment, making its use nothing short of controversy itself.


Researchers are currently exploring the effects and implications of using Remdesivir in non-hospitalized patients (which just got approved by the FDA for outpatient non-hospitalized therapy), and using it in an inhaled form when less severe symptoms of COVID start to occur, which researchers say is “just as effective” as IV treatment in more severe cases. More research is still being done on the implications of this, though.


 

Other treatments include a recently tested treatment called monoclonal antibodies, which is even more of a controversy.


Monoclonal antibodies are just as their name suggests, they are laboratory made by cloning a white blood cell. They are monovalent, meaning if they are set to one target, they will attack that single target.


Monoclonal antibodies in this case were made as substitute antibodies for people who lack the proper defences in their immune systems (immunocompromised individuals) who cannot make antibody defences against the COVID-19 virus antigens. Like the body’s normal antibodies, monoclonal antibodies attach to the antigen’s spike receptor proteins and block its ability to enter the body’s cells, reducing its transmissions and leaving it helpless until it gets killed by macrophages.


Some monoclonal antibody treatments, like sotrovimab, exist in hospitals that house these specific kinds of patients. There have been numerous studies on the overall effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies. A study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh shows that the monoclonal antibody treatment significantly cuts the risk of hospitalization and death by COVID-19. However, there has been controversy as to whether this can effectively replace things like vaccines. Vaccines are still the best treatment against COVID contraction, no matter what.


 

Finally, a newer discovery that has been heavily discussed on news platforms lately is antiviral pills for COVID. Merck made a pill for COVID-19 infection called molnupiravir. These pills should be used if you have a mild to moderate infection of COVID-19 and is not a substitute for the COVID-19 vaccine and its booster. It has limited potential – hospitalizations are only reduced by 30-35% – but it is still effective if you have a mild infection.


COVID-19 is such a prevalent disease in society now, but there have been many efforts to find some sort of cure for the infection. Of course, the best way to protect yourself from COVID is to get vaccinated, but it is still fascinating seeing the many different treatments of COVID-19 and how they’re made!


Bibliography with citations and links


Meghan S. Vermillion, et al. “Inhaled Remdesivir Reduces Viral Burden in a Nonhuman Primate Model of SARS-COV-2 Infection.” Science Translational Medicine, Gliead Sciences, 30 Dec. 2021, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abl8282.

“Remdesivir Uses, Side Effects & Warnings.” Drugs.com, https://www.drugs.com/mtm/remdesivir.html.

“Remdesivir.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Jan. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Medical_uses.

“Monoclonal Antibodies.” UPMC, https://www.upmc.com/coronavirus/monoclonal-antibodies.

Nazario, Brunilda. “Coronavirus Treatment: At Home, Hospital, Drugs.” WebMD, WebMD, 10 Aug. 2021, https://www.webmd.com/lung/covid-treatment-home-hospital#3.

McCreary, Erin, Et. Al. “Covid-19 Monoclonal Antibodies Reduce Risk of Hospitalization, Death.” UPMC, University of Pittsburgh, 17 May 2021, https://www.upmc.com/media/news/051721-bariola-mab-ofid.


Picture for the blog post:



Author : Rishi Chillara


コメント

Post: Blog2_Post
  • Instagram

©2021 by My Medical Message Blog. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page