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A new study has highlighted some similarities between other diseases and COVID-19, using this information to identify drugs that scientists could reuse as COVID-19 treatments.
Scientists have published new research outlining some common pathological mechanisms between COVID-19 and other diseases.
Additionally, they used this information to identify some medications that it may be possible to reuse as COVID-19 treatments, including main melatonin.
The study, which now appears in the journal PLOS biology, sets the stage for future randomized controlled trials to confirm the initial results.
While the discovery of an effective vaccine is key to reducing the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists are also researching other medical interventions that could play an important role in bringing it under control.
Finding a treatment that significantly reduces the chance of a person dying if they contract the virus would be a major step forward, as the pandemic has caused over 1.2 million deaths so far.
Much like developing a safe and effective vaccine, however, developing a new drug to treat COVID-19 is likely to take a significant amount of time.
In addition to identifying an effective molecule as a base for the drug, the drug would then have to undergo extensive testing to determine if it would be safe for people around the world.
One way around this is to turn to previously developed drugs. These have already been thoroughly tested and are approved to have minimal, or at least tolerable side effects.
If researchers can show that a previously developed drug is effective in treating COVID-19, it could be much quicker to reuse it for this task. This could potentially save a significant number of lives.
The main challenge is to identify which previously developed drugs might be effective against COVID-19.
In the recent study, scientists addressed this by investigating the mechanisms by which COVID-19 causes damage to the human body. Specifically, they compared these mechanisms with those of many other diseases, looking for similarities.
Identifying these mechanisms is helpful in improving our understanding of how COVID-19 works.
However, it also provides scientists with clues as to which drugs may be effective against COVID-19. If a disease has a similar mechanism of action to COVID-19, it is possible that drugs that treat this disease are also effective against COVID-19.
Scientists used an ‘integrative network medicine strategy’ to compare COVID-19’s mechanisms of action with those of 64 other diseases.
These diseases belonged to six categories:
- cancer
- metabolic
- autoimmune
- neurological
- cardiovascular
- pulmonary
By creating an “interactive map” of COVID-19’s mechanisms of action, the scientists were able to quantify how similar it was to these other diseases.
For example, the researchers noted that the proteins in sepsis and respiratory distress syndrome, which are two common causes of death in people with COVID-19, had significant connections with the proteins in SARS-CoV-2. which is the virus that causes COVID-19.
For the lead author of the study, Dr. Feixiong Cheng, of the Genomic Medicine Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, “[t]its signals to us, therefore, that a drug already approved for the treatment of these respiratory conditions could also have some utility in the treatment of COVID-19 by acting on those shared biological goals “.
After analyzing the various mechanistic similarities between diseases and COVID-19, scientists have identified 34 drugs that may be candidates for repurposing as COVID-19 treatments.
To further confirm the potential of these drugs as COVID-19 treatments, the scientists analyzed patient data from the Cleveland Clinic. In these tests, melatonin was the first runner.
After adjusting for age, gender, race, smoking, and other comorbidities of the disease, the team found that among people tested for SARS-CoV-2, those taking melatonin were 28% less likely. to contract the infection. For African Americans, this figure was 52%.
However, while these results are promising, it is important to remember that they are only the first results. Other repurposed drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine, have shown promise in laboratory tests, but clinical trials are not finding significant effects.
As Dr. Cheng notes, “It is very important to note that these findings do not suggest people start taking melatonin without consulting their doctor.”
“Large-scale observational studies and randomized controlled trials are critical to validating the clinical benefit of melatonin [people] with COVID-19, but we are excited about the associations presented in this study and the opportunity to explore them further, “he concludes.
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