Can canine coronavirus drug indomethacin be used in treating humans suffering from COVID-19?
A drug helped dogs fight off a type of coronavirus common in canines. Now, scientists believe the same drug might come to the rescue of humans suffering from COVID-19.
Though promising, the preprint study is preliminary. The study evaluated the drug — Indomethacin — against canine coronavirus. This virus, which is known to cause a highly contagious intestinal disease in dogs, shares ancestry with the new coronavirus.
Doctors prescribe indomethacin to reduce fever, pain, stiffness and swelling from inflammation. "Definitely worth additional testing of Indomethacin (Indocin), an anti-inflammatory from the 1960s, shown to inhibit CoV-2 & #coronavirus in dogs," tweeted Dr David Sinclair, from Harvard Medical School.
The focus is on old drugs because new treatments could take years to develop. "Given the urgency of the SARS CoV-2 outbreak, we focus here on the potential to repurpose existing drugs approved for treating infections caused by RNA viruses," the authors wrote in their study.
In one study, scientists showed that indomethacin can keep the SARS coronavirus — a close relative of the new coronavirus — from replicating inside cells. Scientists will learn more about its efficacy against the new coronavirus and its side-effects as they conduct more studies.
In this study, which has not been peer-reviewed yet, the team divided dogs infected with the canine coronavirus into three groups. Of the nine dogs that received an antiviral drug called ribavirin, three died. The second group fared a lot better. They received antibodies against the virus (anti-canine coronavirus serum) and only one dog died.
None of the dogs belonging to the third group died. Receiving Indomethacin, all the nine dogs survived the disease. What's more, dogs belonging to groups 2 and 3 recovered quickly.
"The results show, indomethacin can achieve a similar efficacy as treatment with anti-canine coronavirus serum, and superior efficacy than the treatment with ribavirin," the authors said.
As for lab-grown cells infected with the new coronavirus, they saw that indomethacin is toxic against the virus. Aspirin, on the other hand, was ineffective.
Why this study needs more research?
Drugs such as indomethacin and aspirin belong to a category of drugs called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). Doctors use them to treat pneumonia, which is common among severe COVID-19 patients.
However, some experts have raised an alarm against the class of drugs, suggesting that the drug might worsen the disease. "However, current scientific evidence does not indicate that patients with mildly symptomatic COVID-19 could be harmed by using NSAIDs," wrote Petros Ioannou, a post-doctoral researcher at the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, in the BMJ.
Earlier, France's health minister issued a warning against other NSAID drugs such as ibuprofen and cortisone. Other experts have said there is not enough evidence against the use of ibuprofen. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement saying: "At this time, FDA is not aware of scientific evidence connecting the use of NSAIDs, like ibuprofen, with worsening COVID-19 symptoms. The agency is investigating this issue further and will communicate publicly when more information is available."