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Scientists know how to make coronavirus harmless.

Anatori Sealife Comments 0 2nd April 2020
Scientists from Novosibirsk know how to make coronavirus harmless.

Specialists at the Center for the Prevention of Thrombosis(CPT) found a way to turn deadly COVID-19 into the usual flu. Andrei Gromov, the head of the Center, wants to share his discovery about how to make coronavirus harmless.

Andrei, do you know how to cure the coronavirus?

No, I’m not a virologist and won’t be able to treat this infection. But we look at the problem from a different perspective. We know how to minimize the consequences of a viral infection. After all, people die not from the virus but from its complications. If you manage to avoid them, the great and terrible COVID-19 will be no more dangerous than ordinary flu, and our immunity will be able to cope with it.

And, on what is your confidence based? You did not deal with patients with coronavirus?

The COVID-19 epidemic has become such a shock for humankind, a planetary threat, that world science has taken unprecedented measures. Scientists began to exchange information in an emergency. Chinese researchers published protocols on the course of viral infection in major journals. And I, as a specialist who develops technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of thrombosis, saw a weak spot in the therapy used today. The fact is that the whole world cures the virus, trying to destroy the pathogen itself. And we decided to concentrate on preventing consequences and complications until scientists found a remedy against the virus.

Medics are using two types of treatments against COVID-19 now. The first is antiviral drugs; Chinese doctors mainly use ribavirin. The second is powerful anti-inflammatory substances designed to prevent the development of pneumonia. Those that are effective are heavy anti-malarial drugs, such as Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. A lot of information about them is available. But, as experience shows, these drugs are not enough.

What do you suggest to make coronavirus harmless?

And we found a weak spot in this infection. As you know, it affects the lungs. There we have the primary “battle”. Therefore, it was the lungs that we decided to protect to prevent pathology from developing in them. After all, pneumonia does not begin on the first day. The infection spreads quite slowly. At first, it “occupies” the nasopharynx, then gradually “crawls” to the lungs. Therefore, doctors have the opportunity to buy time.

The situation in Russia is not as dangerous as in China. About 23% of patients in our country have an asymptomatic infection or a minor viral load, and their immunity copes with the disease independently. In 63-65% of patients, a viral infection of the type of influenza or parainfluenza develops. And only 14% of everything flows into pneumonia. Up to a third of patients with complications in the form of pneumonia do not survive. And they die precisely from pneumonia.
Moreover, it is disastrous. Even those recovering develop adhesions. A scar of connective tissue pulls the lungs together, and a person remains with respiratory failure for life. So, if you stop the development of pneumonia, the immune system can cope with the virus.

But doesn’t our medicine know how to treat pneumonia and make coronavirus harmless?

It is not about ordinary pneumonia. Here is the thing. COVID-19 is an intelligent virus. Once in the lungs, it is waiting for an immune response. And the immunity throws all its defences there: white blood cells, unique proteins, NK cells, T-lymphocytes, and macrophages … They act like artillery shells or grenades. There is an explosive reaction. That is, they destroy the virus but also damage the surrounding tissue. However, lung tissue is riddled with blood vessels. A side effect of this battle is rapid pulmonary oedema. Breathing begins to break. Moreover, the more our defenders “try, ” the more they throw out inflammatory proteins the more their native cells are damaged.

It turns out that the more actively the body fights, the sooner it loses. Is that so?

Watch what happens. These “explosives” that immunity cells emit for our protection damage the walls of blood vessels. And then, blood plasma penetrates the lungs into the respiratory vesicles (alveoli). It contains fibrinogen – an abundant fibrous protein; we need it to close the damage to blood vessels. In principle, fibrinogen protects us from bleeding. But in this case, it begins to work against the body.

A cunning virus wraps the situation in its favour and uses fibrinogen for its protection. It builds ramparts, walls, trenches, and dugouts around itself to become impregnable. But the worst thing is in the lungs; thus, numerous micro-blood clots form.

Does the virus reverse our immunity against ourselves?

The virus uses our defence system for its purposes. That is the trick. Not without reason, everyone notes that this is a very smart virus; it explicitly causes a blast wave in the human body, provoking us. It initially “knows” this mechanism and expects to use it to entrench itself, the fence itself and protect itself from the body by blood clots.

As a result, blood clots flood the lung, squeezing it from all sides. That is why we have all these severe cases, including deaths. If we can stop the process of thrombosis, we will solve the problem, and the virus will lose its lethality.

But indeed, this mechanism is known not only to you.

Of course not. We are not the only ones in the world who are so clever. However, there is one point. I am a specialist in thrombosis. The doctors struggling with COVID-19 have no experience dissolving large blood clots. I have 30 years of experience and know how it works. I used to dissolve pulmonary thromboembolism, and these are very heavy blood clots, equal in mortality to a heart attack. And I understand what medics can do in case of coronavirus pneumonia.

So, what can they do to make coronavirus harmless?

There are well-known remedies. Firstly, these anticoagulants, such as heparins, interfere with blood coagulation. And secondly, thrombolytics dissolve blood clots. (By the way, I note in parentheses: pharmacists of Milan produce low molecular weight heparins. And I do not know why Italian doctors do not use them.)

But the most important thing is the time to start treatment. Now, all over the world, patients are being treated when it is too late, pneumonia is in full swing, blood clots have already developed, and a person is in serious condition. We suggest doing this much earlier. Since the virus gives us time, we must start treatment before pneumonia. Introduce heparins to those who have just had shortness of breath, like moderate patients, to make coronavirus harmless. And, of course, to everyone at risk, over 60, who have chronic diseases such as cardiovascular, diabetes, oncology, etc. It is our Novosibirsk exclusive, our know-how.

But there is another local exclusive.

The fact is that Americans can also dissolve blood clots, as far as I know. And even the other day, they decided to try this idea. But the problem is that their thrombolytic is very expensive, and it is impossible to use it massively, only on the most severe patients. And such patients, as we said, are often too late to treat. So, about the exclusive. Novosibirsk produces a much cheaper drug with no side effects, and we can massively use it for treatment in such situations. It is Trombovazim, and it is well-known to specialists.

Humanity is not yet able to defeat COVID-19. So, it may infect us until a specific antiviral drug and a vaccine appear. But we can and offer to minimize mortality today. Stop the disaster. Save the lives of thousands of people who die from the effects of coronavirus every day. It is quite possible to make coronavirus harmless. Then, the infection will go into the category of common respiratory diseases; we can unload hospitals, and people will perceive COVID-19 as regular flu, which, of course, is not very pleasant to hurt but not mortally dangerous.

For reference:

Andrei Gromov, Director of the Center for the Prevention of Thrombosis, PhD, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Clinical Biochemical and Hormonal Studies of Therapeutic Diseases, Research Institute of Therapy and Preventive Medicine, author and co-author of seven textbooks and monographs, as well as more than 250 printed scientific papers, speaker many international and European medical congresses.