The USA, UK, and India have been struggling to find a reliable and safe vaccine for COVID-19 and surely, the cure is out of question right now.
But there is something else, and a quite surprising thing, that has come forward as a potential cure and treatment for the lethal Coronavirus.
Studies have found that a gas produced naturally in the human body, is very likely to be a treatment for COVID-19 until the vaccine arrives. This gas is Nitric Oxide, and it is a cell-signaling molecule that our body makes on its own.
There is still no reliable vaccine or cure available in most countries
For now, there is no reliable vaccine or cure in the USA, and people falling severely ill due to Coronavirus are completely helpless.
Their only hope till now has been Remdesivir, which is a drug given to hospitalized patients of Coronavirus. It can help with the recovery by increasing your recovery speed and helping you heal from the viral damage.
And even Remdesivir was originally invented to treat Ebola, which is another viral disease that wreaked havoc in Africa a few years ago.
This is how Nitric Oxide helps Coronavirus patients
Note that Nitric Oxide is different from the laughing gas which is Nitrous Oxide. Nitric Oxide can dilate your blood vessels, and that increases your blood flow. In this manner, it acts as an anti-inflammatory agent.
Patients severely suffering from COVID-19 face the biggest problem which is that the level of oxygen in their blood becomes really low. So inhaling Nitric Oxide in low concentrations is really helpful since it boosts oxygen flow.
Many studies have also shown that Nitric Oxide can prevent the Coronavirus from multiplying and replicating inside your body. The scientists found that nitric oxide inhibited a key enzyme called a protease that the virus needs to make copies of itself.
Nitric Oxide works on herpes, hantavirus, and many other viruses
The scientists said in their paper:
“Based on this study and previous studies on SARS-CoV in vitro, and in a small clinical trial, we conclude that [nitric oxide] may be applied for clinical use in the treatment of COVID-19 and other human coronavirus infections.”
It has also been found that Nitric Oxide was able to stop the SARS virus of 2003 from multiplying and replicating as well. In past, studies had shown nitric oxide to be effective against many different viruses such as herpes virus, hantavirus, and coxsackievirus (an enterovirus that causes “hand foot and mouth disease”).
Featured Image Courtesy: Healthline