Finding a vaccine against Covid-19 will take months, maybe years. A drug that could fight the worst symptoms of the virus by then would be worth its weight in gold. The anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that Donald Trump is promoting is unlikely to be. But it would be possible that the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) has something that works.
A team of researchers at FAU has shown in a study that medications for autoimmune diseases inhibit Covid-19 infections even before the virus has spread to the body.
The FAU is an authority when it comes to treating autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism.
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In the study published in the scientific journal Nature Reviews Immunology published, so-called cytokine blockers or cytokine inhibitors are used. These are usually used to treat patients with autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism, gastrointestinal inflammation and psoriasis.
Autoimmune diseases
A study of 1,000 subjects showed that subjects taking cytokine blockers for their autoimmune disorders were better protected from Covid-19 than other subjects from a group of volunteer nurses and doctors who had not taken the drug.
“It seems that the cytokine inhibitors limit SARS-COV-2 virus infection from the outset. This prevents the production of antibodies, ”says Professor Georg Schett from FAU.
Covid-19 is known to cause a strong immune response that causes inflammation of the alveoli, which in turn disrupts gas exchange in the lungs. This inflammatory reaction is caused by cytokine, a substance that serves as a messenger in the body. In diseases such as rheumatism, intestinal inflammation and psoriasis, several of these messenger substances play an important role and can therefore be combated with cytokine inhibitors.
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