In a new study, researchers found that a slight increase in solution pH might be all it takes to turn a metabolic inhibiting drug, traditionally used to treat gut parasites, into a promising nasal spray and early treatment throat spray for COVID-19.
Since 1958, niclosamide has been used to treat gut parasite infections in humans, pets and farm animals.
In recent years, however, researchers have been testing niclosamide’s potential to treat a much wider range of diseases, such as many types of cancer, metabolic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis.
They have found the drug could be a potent antiviral medication, inhibiting a virus’s ability to cause disease by targeting the energy supply of the host cell that the virus co-opts for its self-replication.
In the current study, the team says when used in conjunction with vaccines, masking and other recommended mitigation measures for COVID prevention, the new niclosamide solution holds potential as an adjunct strategy.
To find out how effective and tolerable niclosamide might be for human use to fight COVID-19, the team turned to cells that were more pertinent to the initial nasal and bronchial infection—respiratory epithelial cells—and engaged other clinical researchers at Duke.
The found that just a few micromolar concentration of the drug can lower energy levels enough to potentially cut virus reproduction completely without harming the cells themselves.
The researchers then tested human airway cells treated with just the buffered niclosamide solution.
They found niclosamide is not easily dissolved into water-based liquids that can be sprayed into a person’s nose and mouth.
The drug’s normal attainable solution concentration at a nasal pH of around 6 or 7 is close to, or even less than, what the benchtop studies suggest is required to stop the virus from replicating in cells without protective mucus.
The team estimated that a solution concentration that is about 10 times greater than that typically attainable is needed to produce a functioning prophylactic and treatment spray, and that it can get through the mucus layer in a matter of milliseconds.
They demonstrated that raising the solution’s pH to a slightly alkaline pH of 8.0—acceptable for a nasal spray—can dissolve enough niclosamide to meet the requirement of calculations.
And raising the pH to 9.2, which is still tolerable for a throat spray, beats that benchmark by 10 times more and could be used in early infection.
While promising, these results still need to be tested in cells actually infected with COVID-19, as well as in such cells protected by a mucus layer, which requires finding partner labs and agencies with the required biocontainment resources and live virus.
If you care about Covid, please read studies about green tea that offers new hope to treat COVID-19, and antibodies from COVID-19 vaccination much higher than from infection.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that people can lose 80% of their COVID-19 immunity 6 months after Pfizer shot, and COVID-19 booster shots prompt stronger, longer protection than original shots.
The study is published in the journal Pharmaceutical Research. One author of the study is Professor David Needham.
Copyright © 2022 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.