My interpretation, links to sources, and predictions for COVID-19 March 15th
Since my Harvard lab closed yesterday, I've been reading and interpreting this week's published papers on #COVID19. What follows is a thread of information, my interpretation, links to sources & predictions. Let's start with what you need to know. As always, this is not medical advice, and there hasn't been time to vet all the work.
Treatments that seem to work are chloroquine (a cheap malarial drug), though it's original published efficacy from early trials is now questioned and doctors in the USA are using is less often, Gilead's remdesivir with interferon-beta (in clinical trials for COVID-19), and plasma from recovered patients (and old therapy_. Steroids are no longer recommended (e.g. methylprednisilone). Doctors in US are now using remdesivir off-label. Vaccines are 12-18 months away and there's no guarantee they will work. In fact, caution needs to be exercised because an IgG immunotherapy against the surface spike protein of SARS-CoV1 caused monkeys to die faster, a few years ago. We can't have this happen to patients.
SARS-CoV2 attacks pneumocytes in lung, intestine, heart & cells lining blood vessels. In lung, CoV2 prevents cells from making biological detergents to keep lung passages open. Acute respiratory distress follows. O2 levels fall, but there may be a dangerous underlying process.
New work out of China yesterday says COVID-19 might also involve abnormal blood production (so people who have lost a spleen that deals with defects in red blood should probably be extra careful).
CoV genes 1 & 8 are predicted to interfere with heme, the red compound in blood, by kicking out the iron. Would explain why chloroquine seems effective as a treatment.
Chloroquine is predicted to prevent orf1ab, ORF3a and ORF10 from attacking heme (red in red blood cells) and inhibit the binding of ORF8 to heme. Although 99% of the virus is seemingly stable, what's disturbing is ORF 1 and 8 are mutating the fastest.
Positions nt28144 in ORF 8 and nt8782 in ORF1 are evolving. Samples out of China show they'd mutated 30.53% (29/95) and 29.47% (28/95), respectively. I'm currently figuring out why these are the ones mutating and how that would change the situation.
It may explain why diabetics and elderly are more susceptible. Blood sugar levels usually increase as we get older, increasing the amount of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). The authors suggest these people would be more susceptible to because. The virus could more easily disrupt the heme in red blood cells. If so, the virus is very smart: it destroys the lung so patients can't take up oxygen AND reduces the body's ability to carry oxygen. (For this & other reasons, you should eat healthily the next 2 years).
These ideas are testable. COVID-19 should correlate with HbA1c levels (seems true). Patients should have abnormalities in heme/porphyrin & they might have higher levels of free iron in tissues & blood. I will update with more info as it comes in. Stay safe.
Below are links:
Blood, HbA1c, and chloroquine — https://tinyurl.com/w28et45
CoV2 mutations — https://tinyurl.com/secncmf
Symptoms — https://tinyurl.com/ubncbgn
Susceptibility/Risk — https://tinyurl.com/vexo5vl
Fatality — https://tinyurl.com/sb8qpza
Therapies —https://tinyurl.com/vrm7f5j
Remdesivir —https://tinyurl.com/teb8neb
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4yIt seems as though the Thymus is responsible for the production of the CD4 t-cell helper cells which help the T cells and the CD8 cytotoxic cells which search and destroy by deploying / secreting TNF-α and IFN-γ which have anti-tumor and anti-viral microbial effects. CD8 https://www.immunology.org/public-information/bitesized-immunology/cells/cd8-t-cells CD4 - Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DxcrObJJRg adenosine 5′-triphosphate ATP - ENERGY PROVIDER TO CD4 & CD8 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2017.01516/full Thymic Function https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3123661/ Role of TNF-Alpha, Inf-Gamma and IL-10 in Development of Pulmonary Tuberculosis https://www.hindawi.com/journals/pm/2012/745483/ https://www.nature.com/articles/srep26345
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4yDoes anyone knows for certain this is a organic virus and not engineered in lab?
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4yThanks for keeping us updated.
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4yThank you David for using the extra time you have to review the medical literature and to provide us with guidance on #COVID-19. I read your book and respect your opinion.
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4yHi David, it's being hypothesized that the Furin Cleavage site in the spike glycoprotein has made this virus attach to human cells 10x more efficiently and also endowing it with the capacity of targeting multiple organs (liver, small intestine). May be that's why we need a drug candidate that will have systemic biodistribution (like Hydrocholoroquine). Trying to save only the lungs might not work?