Disulfiram is prescribed to treat alcoholism, but researchers from the Weil Medical Collegein the United States, have also observed that it reduced the damage caused by the coronavirus in the lungs of hamsters.
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The therapeutic action of disulfiram has been known for nearly 70 years. First used as an antiparasitic, it is now prescribed in the context of an addiction to the alcohol. Indeed, disulfiram inhibits the action of a enzyme involved in the elimination ofalcohol in the organism. The molecule therefore amplifies the symptoms from the “mouth of drink a way to dissuade alcoholics from drinking again.
Often, a drug authorized for one disease is retested to estimate its effect in another. This is what happened with disulfiram. In 2020, researchers observed that the molecule limits the formation of NETs (for neutrophil extracellular trapsin English), an extracellular structure that white blood cells neutrophils unfurl like a webspider to catch the pathogens. However, these NETs can also attack pulmonary tissues and vessels. They are present in the lungs of some patients with Covid-19.
” NETs can damage tissue, but because disulfiram interferes with gasdermin D, a molecule required to produce NETs, none are formed after disulfiram treatment “, explains Mikala Egelbad, first author of the study published in JCI insight.
Positive pre-clinical trials
After testing in vitro who have shown that disulfiram prevents neutrophils to deploy their NETs, the researchers carried out pre-clinical trials on golden hamsters with Covid-19. A dose of disulfiram one day before and one day after infection with SARS-CoV-2 reduces the formation of NETs and consequently tissue damage in lungs (fibrosis), and also turns off theinflammation harmful.
NETs are implicated in other lung diseases, acting on their formation could be interesting beyond Covid-19. The researchers tested disulfiram on mice with the syndrome transfusion-related acute respiratory tract (TRALI), which is acute respiratory distress after a transfusion blood. Disulfiram treatment significantly increased the survival of the group of mice, compared to those untreated. A small clinical trial of 60 Covid patients is underway at the University of California, San Francisco to confirm the positive effects of disulfiram.
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