Posted April 9, 2020: by Bill Sardi
While the world awaits a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 coronavirus infections, a report in the journal Antiviral Research provides an account of a recent laboratory experiment where ivermectin, a known anti-viral agent and widely used anti-parasitic agent, produced a ~5000-fold reduction in viral COVID-19 coronavirus RNA! COVID-19 coronavirus is a single-stranded RNA virus.
Given that most people infected with any coronavirus experience mild or no symptoms, a safe and effective drug could be used to treat or prevent infections among high-risk individuals (diabetics, smokers, drug users, alcohol abusers, the elderly, thus avoiding vaccination of the many millions of immune-compromised individuals who won’t develop adequate antibodies and therefore may not benefit from vaccination and are likely to experience vaccine-induced side effects.
Ivermectin is an FDA-approved anti-parasitic agent, so safe it is sprayed from aircraft into areas where water-borne parasites abound.
In a lab dish, 24-hours after infection of live cells with COVID-19 coronavirus, ivermectin reduced RNA by 93%. At the 48-hour point ivermectin treatment “resulted in the effective loss of essentially all viral material.” A single dose was able to control all viral replications.
Researchers said: “if ivermectin is given to patients early in infection, it could help to limit the viral load, prevent severe disease progression and limit person-to-person transmission.” High-dose ivermectin has a good safety profile.
The discovery of ivermectin’s ability to rapidly abolish COVID-19 coronavirus particles is announced at a time when an article in The Wall Street Journal entitled “Scientists Rush To Find Coronavirus Cure – But It Still Isn’t Fast Enough,” points to 140 experimental drug treatments and vaccines under development that are not likely to exceed the demonstrable viral-killing effect of ivermectin and certainly do not have ivermectin’s safety profile. But if it doesn’t come from Big Pharma, the public won’t likely hear about it. The frightened masses are forced to locate online sources of ivermectin for veterinary use, knowing their doctors aren’t going to incorporate it into the fight against viral diseases.
A landmark report published in the Proceedings of the Japan Academy in 2011 described ivermectin as a “wonder drug” from Japan.
Originating solely from a single microorganism isolated at the Kitasato Institute, Tokyo, Japan from Japanese soil—Ivermectin has had an immeasurably beneficial impact in improving the lives and welfare of billions of people throughout the world. It was approved for human use in 1987 under the brand name Mectizan®.
No treatment resistance has been noted over the many years of experience with ivermectin along with the absence of severe side effects. Ivermectin has spared many of the loss of their eyesight from a parasitic infection called onchocerciasis.
Ivermectin is sold at agriculture supply stores and online. It is used topically to treat scabies.
It is what commentators and analysts are not saying about ivermectin that is of importance. Ivermectin appears to be a safe and effective antiviral, beyond the effectiveness of presently approved anti-viral drugs such as ribavirin and interferon.
Ivermectin has a history of anti-viral properties against a broad number of viruses (West Nile Virus, Zika virus, HIV, Dengue fever virus, SARS). Why it goes unused as an antiviral agent goes unexplained.
Existing antiviral drugs are not very effective and a combination of antivirals recently failed were ineffective against COVID-19 coronavirus. There are 37 licensed antiviral drugs. The efficacy of antiviral drugs to prevent influenza is 60-90% with the number of patients needed to treat to benefit one patient ranges from 8 to 89.
Has modern medicine ignored a remedy at hand while millions have suffered with life-threatening viral infections?
A report in Frontiers in Pharmacology explains how ivermectin and the trace mineral zinc achieve a similar effect via different mechanisms. The zinc ionophore drug chloroquine has recently come into public view as an effective COVID-19 remedy. Now ivermectin joins chloroquine, with both either enhancing or mimicking the effect of zinc.
Surprisingly, in the process of investigating ivermectin, an extract from Panax red ginseng is reported to be as effective as ivermectin at enhancing ATP, by two-fold in the P2X4 cell receptor. A similar effect has been observed in the P2X7 receptor (more about cell receptors below).
The anti-viral mechanism of ivermectin involves complicated high science. Here is just one sentence from a recent report explaining how ivermectin works:
“Two single residue replacements were observed among the P2XRs. W46 in P2X4R was replaced by Y46 (P2X2R) and F46 (P2X7R), while W50 in P2X4R was replaced by V50 (P2X27R).”
Hope you got that.
To understand how ivermectin works it is essential to learn about cell energy (ATP, adeno triphosphate) and cell receptors (gateways on the surface of cells through which ATP travels).
Cell surface receptors are doorways that are embedded in the plasma membrane of cells. They act in cell signaling by receiving (binding to) extracellular molecules. They are specialized integral membrane proteins that allow communication between the cell and the extracellular space.
ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the main source of energy in cells and must bind to a magnesium ion in order to be biologically active. What is called ATP is often actually magnesium/ATP (more about magnesium below).
Ivermectin works by opening a channel or gate (receptor) for ATP to move from inside living cells to outside living cells (from intracellular to the extracellular space).
Most viruses spread extracellularly, though herpes, paramyxoviruses and poxviruses may spread through intracellular and extracellular routes.
Ivermectin increases ATP (adeno triphosphate), the cellular energy currency, by 4.9-fold in the extracellular space. Zinc +ivermectin exhibits additive anti-viral effect, a 7.1-fold increase in ATP.
A virus initiates infection by attachment to its specific receptor on the surface of susceptible host cells. The receptor is a major determinant of the route of entry into host cells and resulting severity of illness. For example, the “spike” coronavirus protein is the major protein that binds to invade human cells.
For example, P2XR is a cell receptor where ivermectin or zinc or both are bound to, but by different mechanisms.
Here is where the science gets a bit complicated, kind of like the “Who’s On First Base” comedy routine by Abbott & Costello of yesteryear. It is for scientific nerds. But there are enough nerds as well as scientists and clinicians who are necessarily skeptical who read reports like this and demand to know the intricacies of viral infections and cell receptors. So, if the following is a bit difficult to follow and you feel it is over your head, join the crowd. Maybe the average reader should just skim over the next few paragraphs. The last section of this report is worth reading.
ATP induces die-off of bacteria via P2X4R receptors on macrophages. Macrophages facilitate clearance of killed cells. It is the lack of cell clearance that exacerbates inflammation. ATP itself is anti-inflammatory.
Ivermectin preferentially selects the P2X4R receptor. P2X4 receptors are now considered a target for treatment of sepsis and infection. Ivermectin has been proven to be an activator of P2X4R which in turn increases bacterial killing of bacteria. It does so without increasing inflammatory cytokines. This is critical as lung doctors lament over the lung damage caused by ventilators and the inflammatory storm that isn’t being addressed by current COVID-19 coronavirus therapy.
An authoritative report in Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight is instructive. ATP is rapidly released into the extra-cellular space where ATP exerts an immunostimulatory effect. ATP acts by binding to specific cell membrane receptors. These are called P2 cell membrane receptors that create pores and serve as gates to allow calcium and sodium to flood (influx) into cells.
Mice genetically altered without P2X4R receptors have a higher bacterial burden than normal animals. Pharmacological activation of P2X4R with ivermectin improves survival and decreases bacterial burden following sepsis (blood poisoning).
Another prominent extracellular cell receptor is P2X7 that ATP binds to. The P2X7R receptor is abundant on the surface of macrophages to induce killing of bacteria.
ATP via P2X7 enhances bacterial cell killing by macrophages, a class of white blood cells that literally engulf and digest bacteria and virally infected cells. P2X7 activation also kills germs without induction of inflammation. Macrophages are far more sensitive to P2X7 than B-cells, T-cells and natural killer cells.
If cell energy (ATP) is beneficial in activating the immune system to halt viral replication and/or eradicate virally-infected cells, then it follows that anything that increases cell energy (ATP) should be protective against infectious diseases. So, let’s examine if that is true.
The Merck Manual instructs that coenzyme Q10 is a co-factor in the production of ATP in the mitochondria of living cells. Coenzyme-Q10 is an antioxidant produced naturally in the body and is widely sold as a dietary supplement.
Coenzyme Q10 supplements are usually consumed to supply energy to weakened heart muscle tissue and does indeed exhibit effectiveness against infectious diseases.
CoQ10 levels may be decreased in those with acute influenza infection.
In 1988 legendary CoQ10 researcher Karl Folkers reported that as coenzyme Q10 deficiency increases so does the severity of HIV infection. Coenzyme Q10 therapy was initiated on 7 HIV and AIDs infected patients, with six of the patients completing the trial, one expired after ceasing CoQ10 and the other 5 patients strikingly survived.
As previously stated, magnesium is required to produce ATP cell energy. Low magnesium levels are associated with acute viral infections. A gene mutation in the transport molecule for magnesium results in an immune deficiency disease. In other words, beverages that hydrate and mineralize
What this viral epidemic reveals is a disease-care system that is so self-serving, so despicable, so inclined via profit motives to deliver the highest-priced medicine, so narrow-minded as to deny natural non-patentable molecules are safe and effective, that any remedy that is allowed to “cure” this highly infectious viral disease will have to line the pockets of billionaires, or else.
Vaccination is a “dead-end” street. With 16 approved vaccines and 240 more under development, are we going to vaccinate school children with a universal vaccine that protects against 200 diseases all at once? That would require a very large syringe and a horse-sized needle.
Zinc therapy produces antibodies against all pathogenic bacteria and viruses and results in life-long immunity (no booster shots). By virtue of the fact modern infectious disease control ignores and shuns zinc, it only addresses the symptoms of infectious disease and not the cause. As previously stated, nobody is dying of COVID-19 coronavirus, but everybody who dies does so because of weak immunity. Spokespersons for modern medicine hog TV time and the ink on the printed page to espouse what first benefits them, not us.
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