NICLOSAMIDE FOR COVID TREATMENT
- June 7, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
No Comments
NICLOSAMIDE FOR COVID TREATMENT
Subject: Science & tech
Context: Recently, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in collaboration with Laxai Life Sciences began the phase-II clinical trials of the Niclosamide drug for treatment of Covid-19.
Concept:
Niclosamide
- It is an orally bioavailable chlorinated salicylanilide, with anthelmintic and potential antineoplastic activity.
- It is an antihelminthic used for the treatment of tapeworm infections.
- It has been extensively used in past for treatment of tapeworm’s infection in adults as well as children.
- It is also used as a molluscicide in the control of schistosomiasis.
- It appears to be minimally absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract because neither the drug nor its metabolites have been recovered from the blood or urine.
Tapeworm infection
- It is caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with tapeworm eggs or larvae.
- If certain tapeworm eggs are ingested, they can migrate outside intestines and form larval cysts in body tissues and organs (invasive infection).
- An adult tapeworm consists of a head, neck and chain of segments called proglottids.
- Intestinal tapeworm infections are usually mild, with only one or two adult tapeworms but invasive larval infections can cause serious complications.