Surfactant-based prophylaxis and therapy against COVID-19: A possibility.
Med Hypotheses
; 143: 110081, 2020 Oct.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-634173
ABSTRACT
Hand hygiene by washing with soap and water is recommended for the prevention of COVID-19 spread. Soaps and detergents are explained to act by damaging viral spike glycoproteins (peplomers) or by washing out the virus through entrapment in the micelles. Technically, soaps come under a functional category of molecules known as surfactants. Surfactants are widely used in pharmaceutical formulations as excipients. We wonder why surfactants are still not tried for prophylaxis or therapy against COVID-19? That too when many of them have proven antiviral properties. Moreover, lung surfactants have already shown benefits in respiratory viral infections. Therefore, we postulate that surfactant-based prophylaxis and therapy would be promising. We believe that our hypothesis would stimulate debate or new research exploring the possibility of surfactant-based prophylaxis and therapy against COVID-19. The success of a surfactant-based technique would save the world from any such pandemic in the future too.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Surface-Active Agents
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Pandemics
/
Betacoronavirus
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Med Hypotheses
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS