With more than 2.5 million COVID-19 infections confirmed in 185 countries globally, scientists have made themselves busy in doing clinical trials for vaccines while health officials want to slow the spread with effective policy implementation. Meanwhile for the common public, it is integral to truly know what we are fighting and what is going behind the scenes of the deadly pandemic’s working. In this part, the limelight is on what shows a ray of hope – chloroquine, ventilators or simply medical testing round the world.
Crux of the Matter
Research Supports Anti-malarial Drug but Not Without Potential Risks A French study is being used to prop up the anti-malarial drug, chloroquine, and its derivative hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness. The unblinded, 25 participant study showed that those treated with the drug had a decrease in viral load and the early stage positive cases decreased from 90% to 25%. The reason being it lowers the pH which can interfere with the replication of the virus. Then a research group led by virologist Manli Wang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, put this idea to the test and found that chloroquine successfully stopped the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in cultured human cells.
The FDA approved a new clinical trial to test hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, on hospitalized patients with COVID-19. https://t.co/2genOdQVdf pic.twitter.com/yLz7n3Fu4y — WebMD (@WebMD) April 20, 2020
However, as per reports by WHO and European Medicines Agency, an overdose of the aforementioned two can lead to acute poisoning, liver and kidney problems, nerve cell damage, and low blood sugar levels. The medical professionals have been urged against using them outside trials or national emergency use programmes, especially in combination with antibiotic azithromycin which can lead to drug-induced cardiac arrest.
Be Careful With Your Ventilators After the sad demise of 88% of patients on ventilators in one of New York’s veteran hospitals, it is being said by experts how mechanical ventilation can further damage the already injured lung tissues and can do more harm than cure. Less invasive alternatives can be used in such cases including nasal tubes, non-invasive intubation, and flipping patients onto their stomachs that can be used to trigger better blood flow naturally. Breathing machines should only be put into practice for patients with underlying conditions like obesity & diabetes.
#COVID19 Important new data on 5700 hospitalized patients in NYC https://t.co/GiExjs8iFC median age 63 60% male 42% obesity 34% diabetes Among 2634 pts with known outcome 79% discharged 21% died 88% died for those requiring mechanical ventilation pic.twitter.com/nVKEb5Zx2c — Andy Biotech (@AndyBiotech) April 23, 2020
Ray of Hope Lies in the Difference Between RNA and DNA Virus Multiple medical resources show that the viruses which have RNA as their genetic material jump between species more frequently than viruses that have DNA as their genetic material. Reason being, the former like COVID-19 need new hosts to survive and their infections are acute but not permanent. However the latter, such as herpes virus, are often chronic.
Who's ready for some molecular virology?* SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that's causing this pandemic – evolves VERY SLOWLY for an RNA virus. You've probably seen headlines like "There are now 3 strains of the coronavirus" or "8 strains are now circulating the globe." 1/12 pic.twitter.com/f6e2oemHYr — joseph osmundson (@reluctantlyjoe) April 19, 2020
Thus after collating data from a large section of the population across the globe, it would be known whether the COVID-19 virus is constantly emerging in a new form or if the different variants of the same virus have infected humans worldwide.
Curiopedia
RNA stands for Ribonucleic Acid. It is one of the major biological macromolecules that is essential for all known forms of life. It performs various important biological roles related to protein synthesis such as transcription, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a ventilator as the world struggles to control COVID-19. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s new ventilator is called VITAL, which stands for Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally. NASA says that VITAL can be used to free up the traditional ventilators for patients with more severe COVID-19 in the US.
Numerous key discoveries in biology have emerged from studies of RNA (ribonucleic acid), including seminal work in the fields of biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, molecular biology, molecular evolution, and structural biology. As of 2010, 30 scientists have been awarded Nobel Prizes for experimental work that includes studies of RNA.
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