Chinese scientists have discovered a new drug for the treatment of COVID-19! Can cephalothin really cure COVID-19?

Recently, a new drug for the treatment of COVID-19 discovered by Chinese scientists has been granted a national invention patent. Upon hearing this news, people who have suffered from COVID-19 for a long time cheered for it, and some friends even began to ask: With the new drug for the treatment of COVID-19, can we sit back and relax and fight the epidemic?

What I want to tell you here is that I am also very much looking forward to new drugs, but adhering to a scientific attitude, I still have to say: I am cautiously optimistic and look forward to more clinical research.

Let me tell you about the new drugs for treating COVID-19.

01. What is Stephania tenuifolia?

I believe you can guess from its name that Stephania tetrandra comes from Stephania tetrandra, a plant widely distributed in my country and eastern and southern Asia. It often grows around rural areas or in the wild. You may have encountered it before but didn't pay attention.

Qianjinteng is a traditional Chinese medicine. It has been recorded in many medical books such as "Bencao Shiyi". It is believed that it can be used as medicine, mainly used to clear away heat, detoxify, dispel wind and relieve pain.

After the development of modern pharmacy, people analyzed Stephania tetrandra and found that it does contain a lot of alkaloids, which are common active ingredients in plants. Some drugs have been obtained from alkaloids. Therefore, people also studied Stephania tetrandra extract, which is a kind of extract of Stephania tetrandra.

02. Effects of Cephalaenopsis in vitro

It is currently believed that cephalanthrin has a high biological activity, can play an anti-inflammatory and immune role, and has certain effects such as phospholipase A2 activity and free radicals. This also indicates that cephalanthrin itself may have certain other effects, such as effects on viruses.

Of course, cepharanthin is most commonly seen in cancer treatment.

In fact, there have been studies on the effect of cephalaenopsis on herpes simplex virus (HSV) in the early stages, and it was found to be somewhat effective.

03. The effect of cephalaenopsis on COVID-19

The reason why the effect of cephalothin on COVID-19 was mentioned this time is that when the COVID-19 drugs were being screened, it was found that cephalothin had a certain effect.

Therefore, the researchers began to further explore the effect of cephalothin on the new coronavirus. The acquisition of the national patent also means that the effect of cephalothin in inhibiting the new coronavirus has been confirmed. 10uM of cephalothin inhibits the replication of the coronavirus by 15,393 times.

In fact, there have been some experimental studies, such as the study on the combined treatment of COVID-19 with cephalothin and nelfinavir.

The study proposes a combination of the two to treat COVID-19. The mechanism is that cephalothin inhibits SARS-CoV-2 from entering the body by blocking the binding of the virus to target cells.

After research, it was found that it has a certain effect at the cellular level

And the dose effect was plotted.

To some extent, it also confirms its possible effect

Of course, don’t cheer too soon, because this is only a laboratory conclusion. To verify the effectiveness of cephalothin, clinical research is needed. Only when clinical results confirm this conclusion can it be used as an anti-new coronavirus drug.

Finally, I hope there will be more and more drugs so that we will have more weapons to deal with the new coronavirus in the future.

Ohashi, Hirofumi, et al. "Potential anti-COVID-19 agents, cepharanthine and nelfinavir, and their usage for combination treatment." Iscience24.4 (2021): 102367.