An active ingredient in antidepressants stops coronaviruses from multiplying in human cells: Würzburg researchers come to promising results in a study.
For almost a year, doctors have been looking for effective drugs against Covid-19.
But only one drug has so far been approved specifically for the treatment of corona patients: Remdesivir.
However, new information from the World Health Organization (WHO) raises considerable doubts about the effectiveness of the drug *.
On the one hand, research is being carried out on new corona drugs, but drugs that have already been approved for other diseases are being tested on Covid 19 patients - with some very good results.
In a recent study, virologists and chemists from the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg (JMU) came to the conclusion
that a substance in antidepressants can also inhibit the spread of coronaviruses.
Malaria and HIV drugs as well as blood-thinning substances such as acetylsalicylic acid in aspirin have shown effectiveness against Covid-19 in studies.
Doctors worldwide use “off-label” drugs against Corona
, although there is a drug on the market that has been specifically approved against Sars-CoV-2: Remdesivir.
In a worldwide series of tests initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) - the results of which, according to the German Press Agency dpa, still have to be checked by scientists - the preparation was, however, one of the corona drugs with little or no benefit.
Researchers continue to place their hopes on “off-label” preparations.
“Off-label use” means “improper use”: Medicines are used against a disease (in this case Covid-19) for the treatment of which they have no approval from the regulatory authorities.
According to Würzburg researchers, a new, promising candidate against corona is the active ingredient fluoxetine
, a drug used against depression.
Antidepressants against Corona: "Fluoxetine inhibits SARS-CoV-2 even in a very low concentration"
Researchers at the Institute for Virology and Immunobiology at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg (JMU) had examined in a study how coronaviruses react to the drug fluoxetine.
To do this, the scientists brought human cells into contact with the active ingredient in the laboratory - in concentrations that are usually used in the therapy of depression.
The cells were then infected with SARS-CoV-2, according to a press release from JMU.
The results are very promising: "Fluoxetine inhibits SARS-CoV-2 even in a very low concentration," says study leader Prof. Dr.
Jochen Bodem from the Institute for Virology and Immunobiology at JMU.
Since fluoxetine would significantly inhibit the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the use of the drug is particularly suitable for risk groups in the early stages of Covid-19 disease
, as the scientists explain in their study.
They were able to demonstrate that fluoxetine inhibits protein expression in the coronavirus and thus prevents it from forming the building blocks that it needs to multiply in human cells.
The researchers around Bodem also point out that fluoxetine responds very specifically to viruses of the Sars-CoV-2 type.
The scientists were unable to observe any effects on other viruses.
"So everything speaks for the fact that fluoxetine has a virus-specific effect
, but the effect in the sick person must be confirmed," says the virologist.
What also speaks in favor of fluoxetine as a means against corona: Medicines with the active ingredient have been used for more than 40 years, are relatively cheap and fluoxetine inhibits the release of cytokines.
(jg) * Merkur.de is part of the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editorial network
.
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