Amantadine and rimantadine appear to work, at least in part, by preventing newly synthesized viruses from being released from the host cell and are effective for reducing the duration of influenza A if given within 24 hours of symptom onset and may prevent the infection in close contacts of affected individuals.
Any experience in COVID-19?
To my knowledge, Adamantanes have not been included in the preliminary guideline for treatment of COVID-19. I have also not heard any news regarding successful application of Amantadine/Rimantadine in the country. However, I came across this:
Article Potentially repurposing adamantanes for COVID‐19
Milad Shirvaliloo Thank you for your suggestion, I just requested full-text article
Although just observational, amantadine 200mg/d has prevented infection in close relatives of 3 different COVID-19 cases; all hygienic measures have also been carefully observed. It may well be that it is just a coincidence, but just in case any one wants to replicate the finding in a properly designed study, I want to communicate this small clinical experience.
Antoni Bulbena as you mentioned some of the patients were administered with amantadine can you please let me know nay reffernece.
As far as I know there is not a proper study; this is very common at this stage of the disease. But sound clinical observations, beyond exercises of faith, may be useful as starting point of developping more formal clinical research. I just wanted to contribute to the initial observation of Francesco Lusciano; he might be right!
@Milad i know you must have not come across any study. As no one intrsted to look towards that case but i think we should i could be the beat dryg acting ocer covid-19 m2 receptors channels.
Antoni Bulbena i agree with you sir on the part. actuallu also belive that the amantadine could be a great breakthrough. i have a theory with amantadine but i not having any perosn who i can reach. i think the coumpounds in my theroy could be a breakthrough.
Francesco Lusciano I wonder if anyone has gone into trial with Remidesvir + Amantadine + Interferon 2alpha.
What about patients with Parkinson Disease and treated in routine with amantadine? Do they avoid infection?
I can just tell you about two patients, one with PD and another with Progresive supranuclear Palsy. None of them have been infected yet, despite being admited in a Geriatric Center.
There was a very detailed work dedicated to CoVs published in 2019. It mentioned the amantadine effectivenes against coronaviruses via various pathways (but research mainly concerned SARS-CoV):
https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-019-1182-0
Sandra Smieszek Thank you very much, It was helpful and very interesting,
Have you seen the article published in Medical Hypothesis about this topic? Article Amantadine as a drug to mitigate the effects of COVID-19
This paper is really well done and provides ground to my emprirical use of this drug.
Good news
Keep going!
Antoni Bulbena Thyagarajan Subramanian soon our lab will be publishing a hypothesis of two compounds including amantadine with a potent compound explaining all the correlation with COVID-19. i hope you read it.
I had published a case report
https://journals.viamedica.pl/neurologia_neurochirurgia_polska/article/view/69041
Based in a personal experience, patient with PD and amantadine treatment
Mi adress [email protected]
When used with Rimantadine it is very effective for covid19 pateints with Respiratory Tract infections - Article Potentially repurposing adamantanes for COVID‐19
Have a look at the following RG link.
Article Does amantadine have a protective effect against COVID-19?
Francesco Lusciano
Article Amantadine as a drug to mitigate the effects of COVID-19
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342928027_Amantadine_can_be_used_as_a_drug_for_SARS-CoV-2_treatment_Coronaviruses_2020_1_1
Do we have any new studies about amantadine effectiveness in COVID-19?
Article Adamantanes for the Prevention of COVID-19: A Review of Case Reports
Amandatine is popular as a Covid-19 drug among Poles. Currently, it can be prescribed off-label here. Most doctors, however, fear to lose their licence for prescribing it. So unless a doctor is a close friend of yours, and will write a presctiption for himself, amandatine is unavailable. Only celebreties, like a well known president of Polish Court (Małgorzata Gersdorf), who announced on a twitter that amandatine curred her, have access to it. Yet after it has been used widely by Dr Bodnar, cited in many articles, and after he curred Polish vice minister of justice in December 2020, the intervention of the Ministry of Justice resulted in 2 grants to test amandatine. One in severe patients and the other in out-patients. The grants were announced in December and the first of the trials actually started recruting patients ....on March the 30th. No rush, it is only pandemic. The highest number of daily deaths in Poland so far - is below 1000 (well over 900 in a country with 36 million people). At first, the public was promised first interrim results within 2 weeks. Now it's May and disinformation starts mounting in press.. The media have also informed that there are problems with the recruitment of the subjects for the trial. Patients are supposed not to be sick the right way, being either too sick or not sick enough. Any way some results are expected ... sometime.
@Dorota Zielinska thank you so much for sharing these very interesting information. They were really helpful. Keep in touch.
Francesco Lusciano
Sure, when some early results of the two studies mentioned come out, I shall let you know.
:)
Unfortunately, there are no results available from Poland as yet. There are two studies going on. with grants given in December 2020. One concerns the use of Amandatine as an early treatment, one concernes its use in hospitalized patients. Both studies started to recruit patients around April 1 and, as the public was informed, the interim results were expected in 2 weeks. And then in another two weeks and then in another two weeks and ... the third wave ended, and there was a problem with recruiting subjects, who were either too sick or not sick enough, and ... it seems no one wants the results to come out.
Francesco Lusciano Moses P Moorthy
Monika Klimek-Tulwin Sevki Sahin Arvind Singh September 7 2021. Still no resuls from two on-going amandatine studies in Poland. Public has been recently informed that so far "amandatine has been found to be safe" (as if we had not known that all along) and there are no patients willing to participate in the trial. No wonder, I would not risk getting a placebo, eitheBut I have a question in view of Delta variant and invermectine folks' upgrading protocols, e.g adding fluvoxamine or fluvoxatine, wouldn'd amandatine play a similar role (in view of ints role in neurological deseases) and could it be taken with ivermectine? Are any interactions between the two known or likely?
@Dorota Really very interesting your reflections, even though drugs you've cited are antidepressant and long term covid19 seems to involve neurological disorders.
Francesco Lusciano Thank you for your reply. So do you think IVM+amandatine could be used instead of IVM+fluvoxamine? (The latter one is known for relatively common side effects.)?
Dorota Zielinska Maybe, but nothing is sure. Medicine is not an exact science... I think further studies needed
@ Monika Klimek-Tulwin
Please take a look at the following RG links.
Article Amantadine Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 In Vitro
Article Amantadine Might be Used as a Drug for SARS-CoV-2 Treatment?...
Thanks!
Article The efficacy of amantadine hydrochloride in the treatment of...
The first of the two Polish studies on Amandatine has come out. The other one, desined to fail (underdosed) is still going on. The authors had immense problems recruiting patients. There has been a mass media campain against the drug. The author of the protocol, dr Bodnar, (his medical practice) has recently been fined 5 000 000 zł (1 000 000 $) for treating patiens with Amandatine off label, He did not shut down his practice when telemedicine was a received way of contacting patiens.
I have just listened to the an interview with Dr Bodnar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XISLfexpmyc
I have learned
1. The study I referred ito in the previous post must have concened interim results. The study is still on-going.
2. Interestingly, the amandatine armed recived Remdesivis the way placebo arm did. Dr Bodnar says a better effectivenes of Remdesivir along with Amandatine was observed. Dr Bodnar susspects it is because Amandatine raises Ph to 6 and Remdesivis wors better than. Dr Bodnar did not explain how the contribution of Remdesivir was established.
Regarding the clinical trials on amantadine conducted in Poland, they started in April 2021 in two centers: in Lublin and in Silesia. Both projects received funding from the Medical Research Agency - a total of 15 million pln.
Recently, the media reported that there is a chance that in March 2022 we will know the preliminary results of the study on a group of 150 patients. We are looking forward to it!
Source: https://businessinsider.com.pl/technologie/badania-nad-amantadyna-osrodki-maja-problemy-z-rekrutacja-pacjentow-znamy-wstepny/x4fmfsh
The first study conducted by Professor Konrad Rejdak, which for many has become evidence of amantadine's efficacy, was conducted on 22 patients. Although the authors highlight in conclusions: "Although the current study has limitations due to small sample size and cross-sectional approach, it may indicate that adamantanes could exert protective antiviral effect." - Article Adamantanes might be protective from COVID-19 in patients wi...
Interestingly, two studies by Eleazar Montalvan have recently (October 2021) shown:
1) "No difference in mortality when amantadine was added to the standard of care" Article EFFECT OF AMANTADINE TREATMENT AND STANDARD OF CARE VS STAND...
2) "Amantadine [as a post-exposure prophylactic (PEP) medication] seemed to be an effective therapeutic avenue in preventing patients with COVID-19 to advance to moderate or severe disease." Article AMANTADINE FOR POST-EXPOSURE PROPHYLAXIS IN COVID-19 IN WEST...
Until now, the only larger study (319 patients) led by Mancilla-Galindo in 2020 in Mexico indicated that amantadine was not effective in the treatment of COVID-19. Preprint Use of antivirals and antibiotics for COVID-19 in Mexico Cit...
Interestingly, his study was cited in a paper published in Communications Biology that suggests the efficacy of amantadine in the treatment of COVID-19. Today we know that the authors have made corrections to this text, removing some statements. Note, the corrections are definitely very important. It is scandalous that the first version of the paper with such mistakes was published at all!
Original version: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02866-9
Corrections: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02940-2
"In the original version of the Article, the title did not accurate reflect the main findings of the study. In addition, the final sentence of the Abstract and parts of the text referring to references 3–5 were found to be misleading. The following corrections have been made in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article:
- Original Title: Amantadine has potential for the treatment of COVID-19 because it inhibits known and novel ion channels encoded by SARS-CoV-2.
- Corrected Title: Amantadine inhibits known and novel ion channels encoded by SARS-CoV-2 in vitro.
Abstract: The final sentence of the abstract was removed (“We therefore propose amantadine as a novel, cheap, readily available and effective way to treat COVID-19”).
- Original text: A recent retrospective cohort study described an apparent increase in survival in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients treated with amantadine3. Importantly, a study based on self-reported COVID-19 disease among users of amantadine for neurological diseases4 and a small-scale treatment of COVID-19 patients with amantadine5 both supported this observation.
- Corrected text: A recent retrospective cohort study evaluating amantadine amongst other antivirals did not find any significant benefit of amantadine in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients3. However, a study based on self-reported COVID-19 disease among users of amantadine for neurological diseases4 and a small-scale treatment of COVID-19 patients with amantadine5 suggested a positive impact.
In the following sentence, the word “use” was incorrect and has been replaced with “further test”: “We propose to use amantadine as a novel and effective way to treat COVID-19 through its ability to inhibit known (Protein E) and novel (ORF10) ion channels.”
The following sentence has been removed entirely: Importantly, in the clinic, an apparent protective effect of amantadine in COVID-19 patients has been reported in a retrospective cohort study in Mexico3 and in a small-scale treatment of 15 COVID-19 patients5."
Wskazane powyżej negatywne badanie nie podaje dawki Amandatyny jaka była stosowana. EFFECT OF AMANTADINE TREATMENT AND STANDARD OF CARE VS STAND...Zatem jest bezużyteczne dla czytelnika. W kontekście plagi badań z celowym zaniżaniem/zaniżaniem dawek w czasie pandemii doświadczamy,, budzi zdziwienie zarówno niepodanie takich danych jak i powoływanie się na takie badanie.
1. Sorry I used a wrong languge in the previous post so it says, roughly . The negative study mentioned by @Monica Klimek EFFECT OF AMANTADINE TREATMENT AND STANDARD OF CARE VS STAND... does not provide the dosage of Amandatine used. As noticed by Dr Bodnar of Poland, who cured thausands of patiens including a vice minister and the head of The Court of Justice, uses initially much higher doses than standard flue dosage. The first day it is 500mg and not 200mg. So dosage is really important. It is strange that the authors of the study do not disclose this information, and even more strange when other doctors quate and promote such studies not even knowing what the protocol was. Especially with the recent plaque of overdosed studies (e.g to kill HCQ) or underdosed studies such information is vital.
2. A voice of honesty https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o102
Covid-19 vaccines and treatments: we must have raw data, now BMJ 2022 (Published 19 January 2022), not to mention dosage.
We have unofficial report from Poland on the result of the eficacy of Amandatine in hospitalized patients. Based on that informal negative peseee release, the study designed for 500 patiant was cancelled after 150 (78 in the treatment arm) and Dr Bodnar, the proponent of a famous protocol of curin Covid with Amandatine was immidaitelly forbidde to use Amandatine in hois clinicAL PRACTICE OF OUTPATIENTS. Below is the link to the interview with Dr Bodnar in which he states:
1. The study was designed to show effect after 500 participants, but stopped after 150. .
2. 16 participands withdrew from the study. Rather unusual proportion
3. 16 university hospitals participated in the study but only 4 of them actually have recruited anypatiens, Nowadays we have about 20 000 hospitalized with Covid, and there have been approx 2000 000 patiens during the time of the trial
4. The data from the same study showed that the efficacy Remdesivir does not differe froim placebo either. Yet no action has been taken to stop it, no public press release concerning that info.
5. Amandatine is as cheap as IVM, HCQ
6. Why it was not the the company hired to lead the research and carry out the analysis reported the results, but a university professor involved in the study.
7 20% dead out of 150 in the study. A very high proportion in relation to the average mmortality from Covid in hospitalized Poles. What were the characteristics of that group?
https://www.facebook.com/Tarnogorski.info/videos/697258524770449
Dr Bodnar's statment concerning sudden discontinuation of the Amandatine trial in Poland Google Transtation 21 hours ·
Optima Medical Clinic in Przemyśl
21 h ·
measure.
1️⃣ There was too small a group of a group with historical items in case of a significant group. Not without a study for the first sample of 500 people, part of a deep mathematical analysis and a base of ABM experts. The championship award can be considered your own clinical trial results to remove the trial and legitimate in the scientific world.
2️⃣ Slow recruitment in treatment. Namely, that it was not written (only 3-4 were actually recruiting with 17). Some (such as Krakow) have not recruited a single patient for a year‼ So we have barely 150 people. And long ago it should be 500.
3️⃣ Up to 200,000 people with COVID-19 passed through the entire census over the last year, but 500 could not be found.
4️⃣ Removal of 16 consent from patients (10% of the group) due to their withdrawal raises doubts. No, which was good. By testing the other party, it excludes that they are not distributed in the case of (78 vs 71). It resulted in up to 10% of levels between groups per level. By the test, the strict sense ceases to be randomized and the control group is not assessed due to incorrect measurements with the test protocol. More than 10% of the placebo group withdrew. In an extreme case, if about the same deaths, amantadine may have had a high level of efficiency.
5️⃣ The current study heralds "by the way" the ineffectiveness of remdesivir. The information is contradictory all the time, sometimes this drug works, sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it is very harmful. However, this result does not remove collection and withdraw from treatment. But at the same time using amantadine in the clinic. Why?
6️⃣ Why did your data controllers and introduce themselves bypassing the research firm, CRO firm?
7️⃣ Effectiveness can be diametrically opposed to group size. It is not true that in group 149 it is separable from difference to difference. An example is the Molnpiravir (Lagevrio) study. With a group of 775 patients it showed 50%, while only the group up to 1400, it increased by up to 30%. According to the analysis of the certainty of the result, the 775 group is such a large group that it should give quite accurate results. And it did not happen, the difference is dramatic. At the same time, the result was assumed to be certain in amantadine.
⬆️ Therefore, terminating the study prematurely and the assumed number of patients is against the protocol. It undermines the scientific credibility of the study and ultimately leaves further discussion open.
I am surprised by the attitude of Professor Adam Barczyk. The attitude of the professor at the press conference indicated that the study proceeded without any obstacles and that the assumed goal was achieved, there were thanks for everything and for everyone. It is probably related to the desire to maintain the high professionalism presented by the Professor - the desire to elegantly close a problem in which it accidentally got stuck. Unfortunately, from the perspective of the research, initiators and public opinion, there was a huge disgust about how the research actually proceeded. We talked together many times and pointed out difficulties. These tremendous adversities were probably not accidental and were aimed at slowing down and unfinishing the study. We all know that you were completely alone, without any help or support. Centers were reluctant to recruit patients, doctors did not answer phone calls for weeks, and the ABM expected a huge amount of documentation and recovery plans, without itself offering any tools or assistance to speed up the study. You probably took advantage of the Ministry's proposal to close the study at the earliest opportunity, because it would not have been possible to complete it within the prescribed ABM deadline, and thus avoid possible consequences related to it.
ℹ You did not mention that out of 17 clinics only 3-4 actively participated. Where was the rest? After all, these clinics volunteered for this study! Most did not recruit a single patient in a year. Currently, there are approximately 18,000 patients in hospitals. For a year, COVID-19 patients could have been as high as 200,000 and not even 500 for this study? No offices, institutions or ABM wanted to react to attempts to influence the centers that did not recruit (such as Kraków or Białystok). They argued that this was a problem of the study and not the interest of Poles. All the fault was supposed to be yours, because you wouldn't keep your agreement. Therefore, we understand why the Lord did this. At the same time, we believe that an investigation should begin, which would reveal a second bottom and real reasons why this study has not been completed.
▶ ️ The prepared conference was also to humiliate Minister Maciej Miłkowski, who, together with Minister Marcin Warchoł, fought for this study. It is probably not a surprise that the conference was completely by accident (?) And the Patient Rights Ombudsman, Bartłomiej Chmielowiec, appeared with a ready decision - with a decision to ban the use of amantadine by the Optima Medical Clinic in Przemyśl. Which, after all, is not a hospital, but an outpatient clinic. How were the results of Professor Barczyk known so early? And what about the result of professor Rejdak, who does not have them yet? Could the Patient Ombudsman also have the results of the second study before its announcement? Or are the results already known in advance, before Professor Rejdak himself knows them? Because it is hard to believe that after such a "nativity scene", only in 10 days, the Ombudsman for Patients' Rights will withdraw his decision when we learn, for example, of favorable results from Lublin.
The Patient Ombudsman wants to manipulate the facts by claiming that amantadine gave a false sense of being treated. Unfortunately, the truth is quite different. These are the patients:
▶ ️ are confined to isolation and deprived of treatment,
▶ ️ have antibiotics prescribed on telepath that do not work against viral infections,
▶ ️ are waiting as prescribed for an ambulance when the health deteriorates significantly
▶ ️ and they have deceptively administered ineffective remdesevir in hospital wards, which has cost the country up to billions of zlotys?
It was not the administration of amantadine that led to so many excess deaths, contrary to the above.
What has the Ombudsman done in these matters, if he feels responsible for the rights and health of patients?
It is pathetic what kind of advisers surround our Government, which is going more and more to the bottom. Instead of shaking off the pseudo advisers, he still keeps them with him. Experts have announced that we are in for Armageddon in this wave! How many of them even 'screamed' that if we do not close the country, we will face millions of hospitalizations? 'This wish' has not been fulfilled and yet another scaring society will not come true - because no one will believe it anymore.
And why such anger and hatred towards me and our clinic for promoting amantadine? Few people have an idea of the cost of treatment. Unfortunately, this is where ethics ends and only business begins.
ℹ Few people know that one package of Molnupiravir for 5 days of treatment for one patient (expected to be approximately 30% effective) costs our country nearly PLN 3,000? The same drug in India costs only 74PLN with the packaging
A few days ago the media informed of a positive trend in Amandatine trial in early tratment of Covid, led b y prof Redak of Lublin. The study will be continued, It is a pitty, the trial is underdosed in relation do Dr Bodnar's protocol. The effect would have been stronger. https://www.polsatnews.pl/wiadomosc/2022-02-21/badania-nad-amantadyna-prof-rejdak-wstepne-wyniki-wskazuja-na-trend-w-kierunku-skutecznosci/
Dispite all the difficulties one group in Poland managed to carry out a trial and we know that Amandatine WORKS Article Improved survival in ICU in severe COVID-19 associated with ...
Improved survival in intensive care unit in severe COVID-19 associated with amantadine use - retrospective study
Results
Overall mortality was 72.6%, being notably lower among amantadine treated patients (59.5%, n = 84) compared with controls (91%, n = 91), P-value = 0.001. In multivariate models administration of amantadine was independently associated with lower mortality rate (hazard ratio: 0.220, CI: 0.146-0.333 P-value = 0.001). Furthermore, survival was improved in patients who received amantadine; late administration of amantadine after 5th day was independently associated with lower mortality (hazard ratio: 0.560, CI: 0.313-0.999, P-value = 0.050).
Since Ivermectine is outragiously expensive in Poland, and it is practically imposible to import it from India, Poles treat Covid with Amandatine + lots of supplements.
Really very interesting Dorota Zielinska .... Thank you very much for your information and your contribution.