Hello,
Dimethyl fumarate is a readily-available, FDA-approved drug for multiple sclerosis. It can both inhibit NF-kB and activate Nrf2. This could potentially limit the severity of viral-induced lung injury? Does anyone else think this could be relevant for the current pandemic? It could be used later in infection and possibly combined with an antiviral if one is proven effective.
Best,
FAERS... tells about adverse drug reactions related to any medication....
Dimethyl fumarate is a strong immunity suppressant.
Also flu like symptoms are associated with it as side effects.
Below mentioned citation indicates that due to excessively suppressed immune response, person becomes prone for other lung infections.....
( Rastas, C., Sirignano, D., Barner, A. et al.Legionella infection associated with dimethyl fumarate used for treatment of multiple sclerosis. J Neurol 266, 2867–2868 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-019-09483-x)
Quality research work is needed to establish it’s efficacy....
Thank you Rituja Kaushal ! I will check out that paper. This is always a challenge with any drug that targets the immune system and is dependent on timing. Early suppression may disable the response to the virus; however, later treatment may limit the damaging the effects of excessive inflammation. Several drugs currently in clinical trials for Covid19 (e.g. IL6 inhibitors, mesenchymal stem cells) will face the same challenge. These drugs could have increased potential if there was an approved antiviral to combine them with but of course, we have to wait for that.
Best regards,
Hi Nasir Mustafa
Thank you for the response! I'm referring to dimethyl fumarate as a treatment for patients suffering from viral-induced lung injury rather than prophylactic treatment. Inhibiting immune responses before or during the early stages of infection could be detrimental; however, once a patient comes into the hospital, the immune response needs to be controlled. Corticosteroids are too strong and have not worked in the past but dimethyl fumarate may provide a broad inhibition of cytokine production without complete suppression.
Best,
Hi Greg. Maybe you will find this pre-print that we have in review interesting. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-31855/v1
Take a look at this useful link.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18764-3
Thank you Christian and Arvind, great article! I'm looking forward to more studies that come from it. T cell responses will be very important since SARS-Cov2 significantly decreases their levels (as does DMF in people being treated for MS). I'm not sure how people would respond during an acute (14-21 days) treatment setting and doses may differ. The key will be suppressing the cytokine storm without inhibiting antibody responses and humoral immunity.