Researchers Looking Into Using Nitric Oxide To Treat Coronavirus

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Researchers are investigating whether nitric oxide can be used as a treatment for coronavirus patients.

Researchers at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center have launched a clinical trial to see if inhaling nitric oxide can help coronavirus patients who are having trouble breathing.

Ohio State cardiologists are giving the treatments through a nasal tube that brings in oxygen and nitric oxide.

Researchers say that nitric oxide can be used before doctors are forced to put coronavirus patients on a ventilator.

"There's a greater likelihood of death among COVID-19 patients with pneumonia who are placed on a ventilator," cardiologist Dr. Sitaramesh Emani, principal investigator of the study, said in a news release last week. "If we can treat patients with inhaled nitric oxide before they become so ill that they require a ventilator, we believe we can improve patient outcomes and reserve ventilators and hospital resources for the sickest patients."

The clinical trial calls for the nitric oxide to be delivered continuously as long as it is needed.

Researchers anticipate that can range from several days to about two weeks of treatment.

"Nitric oxide, once its inhaled, seems to help the body actually fight the virus, it has antiviral properties," Emani said.

The scientists say there's already a blueprint, because COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2 -- which they say is 82 percent identical to the SARS-CoV strain that triggered the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Previous studies showed that nitric oxide could suppress replication of SARS-CoV.