NICLOSAMIDE FOR COVID TREATMENT

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.