WUWT by Rud Istvan 3/20/2020
Hopeful: Summary of Wuhan #Coronavirus Therapies and Potential Cures
In the 3/19 Wuhan virus briefing with the FDA, team Trump made much of the possibilities for two therapeutic candidates, chloroquine and remdesivir. Having now done informed basic research on both, I found their stories intrinsically interesting, while enabling an early assessment of their chances of success. Hence this hopeful guest post.
BackgroundWuhan coronavirus is an enveloped positive sense single strand RNA virus, meaning its core genetic RNA code is just one long chain coding directly for several proteins, surrounded first by a protective viral protein capsid coat, and then a lipid membrane ‘envelope’ from which project so called “E†(for envelope) and “S†(for spike) proteins. The S protein is what the virus uses to bind to and then invade the lung’s epithelial cells in order to hijack those cell’s reproductive machinery to make copies of itself using its RNA polymerase, itself encoded in about 2/3 of the core viral genetics. The newly assembled virions that then bud out to infect new cells also eventually kill the infected epithelial cell. Covid 19 disease is caused both by the death of those cells and the immune system’s eventual response to the infection.
The S spikes are also the reason this virus class is named corona, because the spikes make it look under SEM like the virus is wearing a crown.
ChloroquineThese are actually two closely related anti-malarials, hydroxychloroquine (the small French trial) and chloroquine phosphate (the larger Chinese trial). Both were developed in the 1950’s, and interestingly the main use now is to treat rheumatoid arthritis rather than malaria (which evolved resistance).
More:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/03/20/wuhan-coronavirus-therapies-scientific-background/