What if we locked the Covid-19 in a chemical tank top? The idea may seem crazy but it is nevertheless taken very seriously by the scientific authorities. Why? At the outset, it was a simple observation that placed doctors on the trail of chlorpromazine, the oldest antipsychotic treatment in history, among the countless researches in progress against the new coronavirus.
At the Sainte-Anne hospital in Paris, in the psychiatric care departments, hospitalized patients (almost) did not contract Covid-19: only 3% of them, compared to 19% of nursing staff. Quickly, doctors remember that previous studies have demonstrated an antiviral effect of this neuroleptic in work started in the 1980s. Better, in 2014 and 2018, the medical literature reported that chlorpromazine, in vitro, "would act as an inhibitor of the virus entering cells ”during the two previous epidemics caused by SARS (in 2002) and MERS (in 2012). Other studies in the United States have shown that psychotropic drugs, including chlorpromazine, do have the ability to block coronaviruses.
A pilot study with 40 patients with Covid-19
Under the responsibility of the psychiatrist Marion Plaze, head of service at Sainte-Anne, it was therefore decided to have this clear heart this time. The operation launched is called reCoVery, it involves the skills of the Pasteur Institute and fairly quickly demonstrates "effectiveness against the coronavirus responsible for the current epidemic" from tests on animal and human cells. "A world first," enthuses Marion Plaze, who also points out that "this well-known molecule, developed in the 1950s, does not cause dependence or impaired breathing in usual patients. "
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It remains to push the cursor further now on this "interesting track", in particular by testing its supposed efficiency on humans. This is the object of the current phase. "We are launching a pilot study with 40 patients hospitalized in Covid-19 units, with severe forms, but who are not in intensive care, to see if the signal of potential effectiveness is confirmed," says Marion Plaze. In a month, we should have the result of this study which, if it is positive, will open the way to a pivotal study, that is to say on a much larger scale. "