Safe and effective in laboratory dish
A drug that is used to treat malaria is showing promise against COVID-19, the coronavirus, according to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Their scientists are working diligently to test the drug as a possible treatment.
A recently published study outlined clinical trials that had been done in China, using an already FDA-approved drug, chloroquine was safe and effective in dealing with the COVID-19-related pneumonia in a laboratory petri dish.
“When malaria gets into a cell, if you change the pH with a drug like chloroquine phosphate, the malaria can’t live. The same goes for a virus like COVID-19. If you can change the pH, the virus cannot assemble, and if it can’t assemble, it can’t affect you,” said Judith James, MD, PhD, president of Clinical Affairs at the Oklahoma foundation. Dr. James, an immunologist and rheumatologist, said using preexisting drugs is the best way to fast track a treatment for the coronavirus.
“That would be really exciting because it’s a drug that already has FDA approval, and it is readily available,” she said. “If it works, it might treat COVID-19 almost instantly.”
Human trials are needed before the drug can be touted as an answer, experts caution.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For scientists and laboratories working on possible treatments and even cures for the coronavirus.
- About the hopes generated that the chloroquine phosphate could be a possible ready and available answer.
Sources: NewsmaxHealth, KFOR-TV
