A reasonable translation of that Italian article that COULD BE A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN UNDERSTANDING HOW THIS CORONAVIRUS WORKS and the POSITIVE ROLE THAT HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE COULD POSSIBLY PLAY (excuse a few "glitches" in spelling and punctuation") ---->
Annalisa Chiusolo , a young pharmacology scholar, sensed the mechanism of action of Sars-Cov-2 . By understanding this mechanism, the most effective contrast drugs can be accurately and precisely targeted and selected. The Coronavirus would affect the ability of hemoglobin to carry oxygen, creating the conditions at the base of the impetuous complications in the lung until the severe acute respiratory syndrome and death.
Theory is the first step in any verification. Science proceeds by refutations. If this thesis were confirmed, many unknowns would be explained, for example why Covid-19 affects more men, diabetics, and less women in general, and even less pregnant women, and very little children. The circle would close.
But let's get into the merits of the theory. The virus needs porphyrins for its survival, probably for its replication, therefore it attacks hemoglobin (the protein that carries oxygen in the blood), in particular the OFR10 and OFR3 proteins attack the beta chain and subtracts porphyrin. The concepts seem a little abstruse, for a non-expert, but simplifying this translates into a lower availability of oxygen available to our body, with consequent accumulation of carbon dioxide.
Thus the lung cells become distressed and become the site of the cytokine cascade - that is, a huge immune response - responsible for the acute inflammation that characterizes Covid-19 pneumonia. The hemoglobin value in the blood can be an important parameter for evaluating Sars-Cov2 infection: in men the normal value of Hb (hemoglobin) is higher than in women, which would explain the higher incidence of Covid pneumonia in men than to women, the lower incidence and the better prognosis in children and pregnant women, where the Hb values are lower due to an increased need for iron, which makes the "nourishment" of the virus less available.
In elderly or middle-aged patients with diabetes, Covid19 pneumonia has a higher incidence, therefore linked to the increase in blood glucose Hb, and therefore there is greater "nourishment" for the virus. this would explain the higher incidence of Covid pneumonia in men than women, the lower incidence and better prognosis in children and pregnant women, where Hb values are lower due to an increased need for iron, which makes the "Nourishment" of the virus.
In elderly or middle-aged patients with diabetes, Covid19 pneumonia has a higher incidence, therefore linked to the increase in blood glucose Hb, and therefore there is greater "nourishment" for the virus, this would explain the higher incidence of Covid pneumonia in men than women, the lower incidence and better prognosis in children and pregnant women, where Hb values are lower due to an increased need for iron, which makes the "Nourishment" of the virus. In elderly or middle-aged patients with diabetes, Covid19 pneumonia has a higher incidence, therefore linked to the increase in blood glucose Hb, and therefore there is greater "nourishment" for the virus.
Viral damage, therefore, is systemic, that is, it affects the blood and is not confined only to the lung. This would also explain the birth of healthy babies from positive Covid mothers. Because in fetal Hb - stay seated, we will now use some technical concepts, but let's get back to it immediately - the two beta chains are replaced by two gamma chains, a difference is the presence of a residue of serine, instead of a histidine present in the same position of the beta chain, probably responsible for binding to viral proteins, which could mimic the action of 2,3bifosfoglicerato. Now you can get up, let's go back to using more understandable language. All this would explain the lower incidence and the best course of the pathology in infants, missing the main site of action of viral proteins.
The same goes for a chronic disease called Beta-Thalassemia, where the "beta" chains of hemoglobin (the target of the virus) are deficient or even absent. This would demonstrate the lower incidence and better prognosis and course of the pathology in beta thalassemia, which in Italy are widespread in Mediterranean areas such as Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia (in particular in the southern area) where there is an equal thalassemia rate at 12% (alpha and beta). To confirm this theory, there is a scientific publication that has linked subjects affected by beta thalassemia and Covid19, in the data taken from pubmed: as of April 10, 2020, 11 cases of positive Covid betatalaxemia have been recorded in Northern Italy, where the rate of contagiousness is higher: 10 of whom have transfusion-dependent thalassemia.
However, all patients who contracted the virus had concomitant, very serious pathologies: splenectomized, pulmonary hypertension, lymphoma and chemotherapy. Despite this multi-pathological picture, no death, no cytokine storm or severe Sars was recorded in the 11 subjects.
Once the main mechanism of action of the virus has been revealed, many other things can be understood. For example, the central mechanism of action of hydroxychloroquine, and its effectiveness in countering Covid19, can now be explained and fully understood.
What this mechanism consists of is immediately said: the drug by binding permanently with ferriprotoporphyrin (of the Eme group of Hb) removes the substrate from viral proteins and also becomes an important means of prophylaxis. Although there are still no Italian publications on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a "shield" from the virus, among the directors of the infectious disease wards, the specialists, Primaries and general practitioners contacted during this research, many admitted - under a whisper - to use the drug as a "prophylaxis", that is, to prevent infection.
Healthcare professionals who are in close contact with contagious patients take the drug in advance, precisely to decrease the probability of contracting the infection. For now, in support of this "prophylaxis" effect, there is a recent publication, involving 211 people. It was published on theInternational Journal of Antimicrobial Agents , the official body of the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. Of 211 people exposed to Covid positive 19 and undergoing hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis, none were infected.
Finally, further confirmation of this hypothesis is the data collected in the register of the SIR (Italian rheumatology society). To assess the possible correlations between chronic patients and Covid19, SIR interrogated 1,200 rheumatologists throughout Italy to collect statistics on infections. Out of an audience of 65,000 chronic patients (Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis) who systematically take Plaquenil / hydroxychloroquine, only 20 patients tested positive for the virus. Nobody died, nobody is in intensive care, according to the data collected so far. |
