Nitric Oxide, The Gas That Gave Us Viagra, Might Just Be The Cure For COVID-19

In the race for finding a specific treatment for COVID-19, the colourless gas nitric oxide has emerged as a possible cure.

Nitric oxide is a colourless gas helps blood vessels dilate, which in turn leads to an increased oxygen flow throughout the body. It's been used to treat newborns with heart defects and it helped create the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.

AP

According to Daily Mail, doctors from three European countries and three states in the US are testing how useful nitric oxide could be in treating COVID-19 patients.

Many critically ill coronavirus patients have oxygen-deprived blood vessels after the COVID-19 attacks the lungs, and it could not perform its function well, thus needing the assistance of ventilators to breathe.

Nitric oxide led to the creation of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra in the 1990s, as the pill's main ingredient sildenafil makes the relaxing effect of nitric oxide in the body more potent and increases blood flow.

According to the Los Angeles Times, nitric oxide was used for patients suffering from SARS, a close cousin of the COVID-19, and it effectively killed the virus.

Chinese scientists studying the use of Nitric Oxide for novel coronavirus say it may help open the tiny vessels that draw oxygen from the lungs, allowing patients to overcome the respiratory distress that occurs in some cases of COVID-19, reports LA Times,

Warren Zapol, emeritus anesthetist-in-chief at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School, told Gizmodo nitric oxide is used to treat babies born blue, as well as adults with cardiac surgery, and patients with what is known as acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Reuters

According to the Gizmodo, Zapol and colleagues have begun two randomized, controlled clinical trials at Massachusetts General Hospital. One will involve COVID-19 patients already dealing with severe respiratory distress; the other will involve patients with mild to moderate covid-19.

Dr. Lorenzo Berra, the critical-care specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital who is leading the new trial claimed that the use of nitric oxide dramatically boosts oxygen levels in the blood of COVID-19 patients.

The Massachusetts General Hospital spearheads the entire clinical test through the leadership of critical care specialist, Dr Lorenzo Berra.

"It's a pretty remarkable drug," the specialist said to the Boston Herald. "It has a risk profile that is minimal."

Reuters

A new international clinical trial is now being overseen by Mass General and taking place at hospital in Massachusetts, Alabama, Louisiana, Austria, Italy and Sweden.

Coronavirus patients, with mild to moderate cases, will inhale nitric oxide through a CPAP machine for 20 to 30 minutes a day and two times a day for two weeks.

Researchers hope that the gas will 'kill' the virus in the lungs, mitigate damage done to the lungs, and reduce the number of patients who need to go on a ventilator.

Principal investigator of the clinical trial in Louisiana State University Hospital, Dr. Keith Scott, also believes that the use of nitric oxide could alter the "devastating effects of COVID-19," but agrees that it still needs testing.