Doctors from all around the world are trying to see if the gas that gave the world the 'little blue pill' could actually help treat the novel coronavirus while it spreads and becomes even stronger! This nitric oxide is known as a colorless gas that actually helps blood vessels dilate, which then in turn leads to an increasing amount of oxygen flowing through and around your body.
How the Viagra gas has been used
The gas has actually already been known to treat newborns experiencing heart defects and has also led to the development of the popular erectile dysfunction drug we all know as the Viagra! For quite a number of years, doctors have been using different blends of this nitric oxide/oxygen blends in critical care in order to dilate blood vessels to be able to treat infants with different birth defects.
Currently, scientists from three different states in the United States as well as three different European countries are trying out this drug to see if it can actually provide the needed oxygen to the starved blood vessels within the lungs and also spare patients from the need of ventilators.
Nitric oxide has actually been more than just Viagra gas and was even found out to be so important that it received the name Molecule of the Year from the journal Science in 1992. In 1998, three different United States researchers actually won the Nobel Prize for the Physiology of Medicine "For their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system."
The Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation or ECMO machine
Nitric oxide is often times breathed in gas form as a last resort method right before a baby has to be put on an ECMO machine, which then pumps and also oxygenates a patient's blood right outside the body that in turn allows the heart and lungs to rest.
Other known uses of Nitric oxide is it being given to diabetes patients who are experiencing a low supply of this molecule which leads to vascular damage. In addition, the gas actually has a few antiviral properties against a few different types of coronavirus.
This nitric oxide was previously tested and proven on patients back in the 2002-2003 pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome otherwise known as SARS, which is considered to be the cousin of this new virus.
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Will nitric oxide be effective?
According to Dr. Berra who is a critical-care specialist from the Massachusetts General Hospital and also the leader of this new drug trial in a statement to Boston Herald, "It's a pretty remarkable drug," even continuing with saying that "It has a risk profile that is minimal."
A new international clinical trial is actually now being overseen by the Mass General and also taking place at hospitals located in Alabama, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Italy, Austria, and even Sweden! Coronavirus patients with only mild to moderate cases will start to inhale the nitric oxide through the CPAP machine for about 20 to 30 minutes a day, two times a day, for a whole two weeks.
