'Fluvoxamine' drug shows potential to treatment COVID-19: Study

The researchers of the Washington University School of Medicine are investigating whether the antidepressant medication fluvoxamine, which is currently used to treat patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), can be repurposed for COVID-19.

Hyderabad: Researchers have found a trial drug that effectively blocks the cellular door Sars-CoV-2 uses to infect its hosts, an advance that they say may provide a potential treatment for the novel coronavirus.

The researchers are investigating whether the antidepressant medication fluvoxamine, which is currently used to treat patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), can be repurposed for COVID-19.

Till now, the research shows the novel coronavirus proved deadly for those who have feeble immunity power. Also, it proved a fatal disease whose age group lies between 60 and above.

According to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, Fluvoxamine, which is in the class of drugs called selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), also interacts with a protein important to the body’s inflammatory response.

The absence of a clinically proven antiviral therapy or a treatment specifically targeting the critical SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 on a molecular level has meant an empty arsenal for health care providers struggling to treat severe cases of COVID-19, the researchers said.

Eric J. Lenze, MD, the Wallace and Lucille Renard Professor of Psychiatry and the study’s principal investigator said, "Using a psychiatric drug to treat COVID-19 may sound counterintuitive, but it’s no more counterintuitive than using a malaria drug."

Caline Mattar, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, COVID-19 appears to have two key phases.

1. The viral infection itself, which gives people a fever and a cough and makes them feel ill, among other symptoms.
2. A life-threatening inflammatory reaction — what is called a ‘cytokine storm.

He cited that fluvoxamine might help prevent that second phase of the illness.

Previous work helped the researchers to rapidly identify ACE2 as the entry gate for Sars-CoV-2, which explains a lot about the disease.

In the latest study, they found that a soluble form of ACE2 that catches the virus away, could be a very rational therapy that specifically targets the gate the virus must take to infect people.