Hormone treatments used in the last two emergencies during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown enough promise that researchers believe that even though they are still in the experimental stage, severe We are exploring new ways to administer the drug to patients with respiratory diseases.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota are looking into aerosolized versions of liquid treatments that could be administered to more patients more easily than liquids administered through breathing tubes, Bob Schlicht and Tim White said this week. Announced. Two Minnesotans voluntarily received an experimental drug in the summer of 2020 after having trouble breathing due to the coronavirus.
Researchers have found that food and drugs are a safe and effective treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a severe lung disorder caused by COVID-19 and other infections. We need to convince the bureau. But they are confident enough to have founded a startup, Herald Therapeutics, and have patents in the U.S., Canada, China, India and Mexico, and are about to get a patent in Europe.
The liquid version is given to patients who require mechanical ventilation to maintain lung function, while the inhaled version could be given earlier, before patients reach such an advanced stage of lung damage. Yes, said Dr. David Ingber, co-leader of the U.S. conference. the study. If used early, he added, it could improve outcomes for conditions that have been a problem since long before the pandemic.
“The general public didn’t know much about[ARDS]but it affects about 200,000 people a year in the United States,” he said. “And a 40% mortality rate means about 80,000 deaths per year.”
Dr. Ingber and Dr. Timothy Rich have been researching the therapeutic potential of a hormone produced by the thyroid gland called T3 for many years. A study of patients who died during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic showed that patients had decreased T3 levels. Doctors theorized that additional infusions could reduce harmful swelling and fluid buildup in the lungs, and began initial clinical trials in 2019.
The fortuitous emergence of COVID-19 has both helped and hindered research. Supply issues during the pandemic limited the company’s ability to deliver the supplement and delayed the rollout of the trial, Ingber said. Meanwhile, the pandemic has created a new pool of breathing-distress patients to enroll, including Schlicht and White.
Schlicht became seriously ill while traveling from Florida, and his wife had to drop him off outside a local medical clinic in Grand Rapids because of pandemic restrictions. Schlicht, Itasca County’s first confirmed case of COVID-19, deteriorated so rapidly that he was placed in a medicated coma and placed on a ventilator to keep his lungs functioning. He was rushed to St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, where Rich, on staff, recommended hormone therapy. Schlicht’s wife made the decision.
