Coronavirus (COVID-19) Research

If it's on your mind and it has to do with multiple sclerosis in any way, post it here.
Post Reply
User avatar
jimmylegs
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 12592
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:00 pm

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Research

Post by jimmylegs »

What You Need To Know About Coronavirus (COVID-19)
https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What- ... ID-19)-and
"What does COVID-19 mean for people living with MS? Many disease modifying therapies (DMTs) for multiple sclerosis work by modifying or suppressing the immune system. People with MS who are treated with these therapies can face an increased risk of infections."

https://mssociety.ca/resources/news/art ... oronavirus
"If you are taking a DMT and have concerns about your risk for COVID-19, do not stop your DMT without first speaking with your MS provider. If you have been in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19 or believe you have otherwise been exposed to COVID-19 or are confirmed to have this infection, stay home and contact your MS and primary care providers for advice right away."

Disease modifying treatment guidelines for people with MS.
https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What- ... ID-19)-and
If You Are at Higher Risk
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... tions.html

The Spread of COVID-19: Questions Raised, Some Answered by Neuroinfectious Disease Experts
https://journals.lww.com/neurotodayonli ... PostID=908
"People with neurologic conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS)... could also be at high risk and should be advised to follow advisories from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The National Medical Advisory Committee of the National MS Society advises people with MS to continue their disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), for example, and discuss risks with their physicians prior to stopping a DMT."
active members shape site content. if there is a problem, speak up!
use the report button to flag problematic post content to volunteer moderators' attention.
User avatar
zen2010
Family Elder
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:00 pm
Location: Villeurbanne, France

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by zen2010 »

The situation is crazy in France.
I heard it was the same in US

However, the worst is in Italy. They even stopped all transports (train, subways etc..)...
Zyklon
Family Elder
Posts: 401
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:45 pm
Location: Turkey

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by Zyklon »

There is not enough research on the issue. I will not stop Rebif as I believe my immune system is not compromised.

In Turkey, we are kinda lucky for now. I have postponed my annual checks since I don't want to visit the hospital.
Pain! You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
Pain! You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer
Pain! Oh let the bullets fly, oh let them rain
My life, my love, my drive, it came from... Pain!
User avatar
Leonard
Family Elder
Posts: 1063
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 3:00 pm
Location: Brussels

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by Leonard »

Australian researchers claim two existing drugs could 'cure' COVID-19
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... virus.html
Zyklon
Family Elder
Posts: 401
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:45 pm
Location: Turkey

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by Zyklon »

WHO Now Officially Recommends to Avoid Taking Ibuprofen For COVID-19 Symptoms. In the meantime, we recommend using rather paracetamol, and do not use ibuprofen as a self-medication. That's important.
https://www.sciencealert.com/who-recomm ... MOMY3gDFRA
Pain! You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
Pain! You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer
Pain! Oh let the bullets fly, oh let them rain
My life, my love, my drive, it came from... Pain!
User avatar
NHE
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 6221
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19) News

Post by NHE »

I was listening to a doctor on NPR discuss the new coronavirus. He repeatedly stated that the virus was easy to kill with proper hand washing and surface sanitization techniques. This is incorrect. Instead, he may have meant to state that the virus can be easily inactivated. Viruses aren't alive and therefore can't be killed. They're simply some nucleic acid, either DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protein coat. Viruses aren't cells. They consume nothing and produce no waste. An isolated virus is as inert as a rock and subject only to entropy. A virus can be thought of as a molecular parasite as it depends on hijacking a host cell's protein synthesis machinery for its own reproduction. So please, inactivate viruses (make them noninfective by denaturing their protein coat), but please do not try to kill something that's not alive.
User avatar
jimmylegs
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 12592
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:00 pm

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by jimmylegs »

hunting for results with both ibuprofen and coronavirus at who.int. no results so far, but some relevant-looking links eg:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-shee ... ere-dengue
There is no specific treatment for dengue fever. Fever reducers and pain killers can be taken to control the symptoms of muscle aches and pains, and fever.
The best options to treat these symptoms are acetaminophen or paracetamol.
NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), such as ibuprofen and aspirin should be avoided. These anti-inflammatory drugs act by thinning the blood, and in a disease with risk of hemorrhage, blood thinners may exacerbate the prognosis.
active members shape site content. if there is a problem, speak up!
use the report button to flag problematic post content to volunteer moderators' attention.
User avatar
jimmylegs
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 12592
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:00 pm

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by jimmylegs »

  • Human Coronaviruses and Other Respiratory Viruses: Underestimated Opportunistic Pathogens of the Central Nervous System? (2020)
    https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/12/1/14/htm
    "...respiratory viruses may damage the CNS as a result of misdirected host immune responses that could be associated with autoimmunity in susceptible individuals (virus-induced neuro-immunopathology) and/or viral replication, which directly causes damage to CNS cells (virus-induced neuropathology). The etiological agent of several neurological disorders remains unidentified. Opportunistic human respiratory pathogens could be associated with the triggering or the exacerbation of these disorders whose etiology remains poorly understood."
nourish the 'brakes' :) viewtopic.php?p=20260#p20260
now this tidbit about the immune system's 'brakes' is amusing to me viewtopic.php?p=24890#p24890
posted in early 2007, earliest part of my dysphagia learning curve, before the awesome pharmacist came on the scene.
active members shape site content. if there is a problem, speak up!
use the report button to flag problematic post content to volunteer moderators' attention.
User avatar
NHE
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 6221
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19 News

Post by NHE »

The SARS-CoV-2 virus can remain infectious for up to 3 days on hard surfaces. Consider every public surface, e.g., door handle, faucet handle, shopping cart, etc..., a potential source of infection.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/c ... story.html
User avatar
NHE
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 6221
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19) News

Post by NHE »

Consumerlab.com reviews various supplements and their potential impact on viral infections.

https://www.consumerlab.com/answers/do- ... ronavirus/
User avatar
NHE
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 6221
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2004 3:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19) News

Post by NHE »

An early symptom of SARS-CoV-2 infection may be loss of sense of smell and taste. These symptoms can exist in an otherwise asymptomatic patient.

Lost Sense of Smell May Be Peculiar Clue to Coronavirus Infection

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/heal ... taste.html

A mother who was infected with the coronavirus couldn’t smell her baby’s full diaper. Cooks who can usually name every spice in a restaurant dish can’t smell curry or garlic, and food tastes bland. Others say they can’t pick up the sweet scent of shampoo or the foul odor of kitty litter.

Anosmia, the loss of sense of smell, and ageusia, an accompanying diminished sense of taste, have emerged as peculiar telltale signs of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and possible markers of infection.

On Friday, British ear, nose and throat doctors, citing reports from colleagues around the world, called on adults who lose their senses of smell to isolate themselves for seven days, even if they have no other symptoms, to slow the disease’s spread. The published data is limited, but doctors are concerned enough to raise warnings.

“We really want to raise awareness that this is a sign of infection and that anyone who develops loss of sense of smell should self-isolate,” Prof. Claire Hopkins, president of the British Rhinological Society, wrote in an email. “It could contribute to slowing transmission and save lives.”

She and Nirmal Kumar, president of ENT UK, a group representing ear, nose and throat doctors in Britain, issued a joint statement urging health care workers to use personal protective equipment when treating any patients who have lost their senses of smell, and advised against performing nonessential sinus endoscopy procedures on anyone, because the virus replicates in the nose and the throat and an exam can prompt coughs or sneezes that expose the doctor to a high level of virus.
User avatar
jimmylegs
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 12592
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:00 pm

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by jimmylegs »

sounds like zinc could be in high demand within the infected host. tends to be on the low side in ms patients, and the elderly, to start with. research and therapeutic trials with possibly transferable relevance:
can't get full text on this next 1976 study for the life of me, but i imagine the methods and results details would be telling...
  • A double blind study of the effects of zinc sulfate on taste and smell dysfunction (1976)
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/797259
    "...In the patient group prior to treatment, mean serum zinc concentration and leukocyte alkaline phosphatase activity were significantly lower than normal. Results indicate that zinc sulfate was effectively equivalent to placebo in the treatment of these disorders..."
  • Causative factors of taste disorders in the elderly, and therapeutic effects of zinc (2008)
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17592661
    "RESULTS:
    The incidence of taste disorders caused by drug administration and systemic disease were significantly higher in the elderly group. A serum zinc concentration of 69 microg/dl or lower was found in 33 per cent of the elderly group, significantly more (p < 0.001) than the 19 per cent of the 49 years or younger group with such a concentration. Zinc administration was therapeutically effective in 70 per cent of the whole population studied, and in 74 per cent of the elderly population.
    CONCLUSIONS:
    In the elderly, the incidence of taste disorders caused by drug administration or systemic disease was significantly greater compared with other age groups. The curative effects of zinc administration were not observed to be influenced by age."
and that's with 34 mg daily supplemental elemental zinc, over at least 3 months, with mean serum levels rising only into the 90s in mg/dl. i wonder what the therapeutic efficacy stats would have been with higher mean serum zinc levels achieved, either via a higher daily dose or longer zinc administration.
  • Importance of zinc in the elderly: the ZENITH study (2005)
    fft https://www.nature.com/articles/1602286
    "Zn and immunity
    With advancing ageing, there is a progressive decline in immune responses. Changes associated with ageing may be partly related to Zn deficiency, which induce comparable impairment of the immune response (Dardenne, 2003)..."
and now to the liver:
  • Dysfunction of the liver affects the sense of smell (2005)
    https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 004-0303-x
    "Nearly all patients had low serum zinc levels with a mean of 0.50 mg/l and a range of 0.28–1.1 [normal range: 0.7–1.3 mg/l], regardless of etiology or stage of cirrhosis. Only four patients had normal zinc levels. ... Neither zinc nor bilirubin correlated with measures of olfactory function (zinc: r35 = < 0.11, p > 0.54; bilirubin: r45 = < 0.27, p > 0.07) ...
    zinc levels did not correlate directly with measures of olfactory function. In fact, only four patients had normal zinc levels – but only one of these also had normal olfactory function; two were hyposmic and one had functional anosmia. While administration of zinc may improve olfactory function, just as zinc improves hepatic encephalopathy [28, 29], the benefit of zinc in the therapy of olfactory impairment is controversial."
okay so simply achieving 'normal' may not be good enough. got it. and we are referred to the 1976 study mentioned above, for which we know details of methods and results may be telling, if we could only get at those details. which we can't. or at least *i* can't. moving on:
  • Associations between Zinc Deficiency and Metabolic Abnormalities in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease (2018)
    https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/10/1/88
    "...The liver mainly plays a crucial role in maintaining systemic Zn homeostasis..."
and to the liver x aging
  • Changes in regulation of human zinc metabolism with age (1992)
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1443235
    "...During zinc loading, response (defined as change from basal state) of plasma zinc concentration, urinary zinc excretion, and liver zinc increased with age, while response of fraction of zinc taken up by red blood cells decreased with age..."
not forgetting: very informative abstract here ^, but i disagree with using 60 as a lower cutoff and i wouldn't consider mean 68 mg/dl good enough to leave supplementation out of the mix. recall the supplemental zinc regimen noted earlier, which brought subjects' mean levels up into the 90s in mg/dl with only partial therapeutic efficacy (70% is still good, but could it have been even better??)
  • Correction of hypozincemia following liver transplantation in children is associated with reduced urinary zinc loss (1999)
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10051486
    "...After transplant, there was a significant reduction in urinary zinc losses in the hypozincemic group followed by normalization of plasma zinc levels by 7 days posttransplant."
  • Micronutrient Levels and HIV Disease Status in HIV-Infected Patients on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy in the Nutrition for Healthy Living Cohort (2006)
    https://journals.lww.com/jaids/fulltext ... in.15.aspx
    "Forty percent of men and 36% of women had low zinc, however. Subjects in the upper quartiles of zinc had lower log HIV viral load levels... Decreased retinol levels in women and in men with CD4 counts >350 cells/mm3 and increased zinc and selenium levels in both genders may be associated with improved virologic control."
  • Safety and efficacy of zinc supplementation for children with HIV-1 infection in South Africa: a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial (2005)
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3605677562
    "Zinc supplementation of HIV-1-infected children does not result in an increase in plasma HIV-1 viral load and could reduce morbidity caused by diarrhoea... Programmes to enhance zinc intake in deficient populations with a high prevalence of HIV-1 infection can be implemented without concern for adverse effects on HIV-1 replication. In view of the reductions in diarrhoea and pneumonia morbidity, zinc supplementation should be used as adjunct therapy for children with HIV-1 infection."
  • A tug-of-war between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and host antiviral defence: lessons from other pathogenic viruses (2020)
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 20.1736644
    "The severe cases present with pneumonia, which can progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome..."
a nuance to consider:
  • Effect of Zinc Sulfate on Sensorineural Olfactory Disorder (1998)
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10. ... 9850182936

    "...For disorders of post-viral and unknown aetiologies, there were no significant differences in improvement among the three groups... for post-viral olfactory disorder, the lack of olfactory receptor cells and blast cells due to viral infection results in loss of regenerative capacity...

    ...After January 1993, we began administration of zinc sulfate 300 mg/day to patients for more than one month...
so 68 mg per day, noting 220 mg of zinc sulfate contains 50 mg of elemental zinc https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc- ... fessional/
continuing from same article:
  • Table II. Mean pre-treatment serum zinc concentration by aetiology and outcome (mg/dl)
the means in Table II are all low normal regardless of aetiological group. mostly in the 70s, at best in the 80s,
Fig 4 caption: "Schema of the difference between lesions in post-viral and post-traumatic olfactory disorder. In post-traumatic olfactory disorder, olfactory nerve and receptor cells are damaged, while some blast cell remain intact. In post-viral olfactory disorder, both receptor cells and blast cells are damaged."

so. sounds like preventive levels going in may be the order of the day.

as to that, we know that zinc is essential, but toxic in excess. the above makes me wonder if the studies showing anosmia after intranasal zinc spray damaged blast cells in some way.

in the study below, where lung function is concerned it looks like serum zinc levels above 150 mg/dl are consistently changing the slope of the line of best fit for the worse.
Image (link stopped working but fig 2 is easily viewed via the full text link above)

all in all, zinc could come in handy vs covid-19 initial infection, vs pneumonia in severe cases and maybe even vs the less frequently experienced diarrhea. the challenge will be to get enough, without excess, when testing may not be readily available.
active members shape site content. if there is a problem, speak up!
use the report button to flag problematic post content to volunteer moderators' attention.
Zyklon
Family Elder
Posts: 401
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:45 pm
Location: Turkey

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by Zyklon »

Please be careful with panic attacks and try more relaxation/meditation. Anxiety is our enemy. I had to increase my citoplaram dose.
Pain! You made me a, you made me a believer, believer
Pain! You break me down, you build me up, believer, believer
Pain! Oh let the bullets fly, oh let them rain
My life, my love, my drive, it came from... Pain!
User avatar
jimmylegs
Volunteer Moderator
Posts: 12592
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:00 pm

Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know

Post by jimmylegs »

situation is rough for sure z, in turkey and elsewhere
Coronavirus: Turkey accuses Saudi Arabia of concealing cases of Covid-19
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/coro ... es-covid19
Is Loss Of Smell And Taste A Symptom Of COVID-19? Doctors Want To Find Out (March 26, 2020)
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... o-find-out
NEW! COVID-19 ANOSMIA REPORTING TOOL OPEN TO ALL CLINICIANS (March 26, 2020)
https://www.entnet.org/content/coronavi ... -resources
active members shape site content. if there is a problem, speak up!
use the report button to flag problematic post content to volunteer moderators' attention.
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “General Discussion”