Medical hypotheses
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COVID-19 is the pandemic outbreak that is caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus from December, 2019. Human race do not know the curative measure of this devastating disease. In today's era of nanotechnology, it may use its knowledge to develop molecular vaccine to combat this disease. ⋯ The nanoconjugate may comprise with the inorganic nanoparticle layered double hydroxide intercalated with shRNA-plasmid that have a sequence targeting towards the viral genome or viral mRNA. This nanoconjugate may be used as a nasal spray to deliver the shRNA-plasmid to the target site. The nanoconjugate will have several advantages such as they are biocompatible, they forms as stable knockdown to the target cells and they are stable in the nasal mucosa.
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Covid-19 is a new coronavirus disease first described in December 2019. This respiratory illness is severe and potentially fatal. Severe cases make up to 15%, lethality ranges between 1.5 and more than 10%. ⋯ This increase in tolerability enables a broader use for prevention and after contact with an infected person, which would be an advantage especially for the high-risk, often multi-morbid and elderly patients. Empirical data on self-medication with a one-week aerosol application by two of the authors is presented. Inhalation was well tolerated without relevant side effects.
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Currently, drug repurposing is an alternative to novel drug development for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The antimalarial drug chloroquine (CQ) and its metabolite hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) are currently being tested in several clinical studies as potential candidates to limit SARS-CoV-2-mediated morbidity and mortality. ⋯ As zinc deficiency frequently occurs in elderly patients and in those with cardiovascular disease, chronic pulmonary disease, or diabetes, we hypothesize that CQ/HCQ plus zinc supplementation may be more effective in reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality than CQ or HCQ in monotherapy. Therefore, CQ/HCQ in combination with zinc should be considered as additional study arm for COVID-19 clinical trials.