Ostrich Eggs and Goose Eggs against Covid- 19
The human body contains three trillion cells. Each has a lifespan of about one year. Each year more than half a person’s cells are replaced, so after two years a person is completely renewed. All previous cells have been replaced by daughter cells. You may not feel any different, but all your cells are.
Human cells are so small you cannot see one with the necked eye. Viruses are a thousand times smaller. But the human eye can see some cells. Many people have a single cell residing in their refrigerator they enjoy for breakfast, a chicken egg. While duck and goose eggs are larger than chicken eggs, the largest single cell in all nature is the ostrich egg. What do eggs have to do with Covid- 19? Nothing. But size often represents power. Some drugs are more powerful against a disease than others, even if they work the same way – by the same mechanism. A comparison in size between a goose egg and the more “powerful” ostrich egg helps visualise different strengths of various drugs that work the same. A major component of the scientific method is trial and error. If a new disease comes along, doctors worldwide experiment and try to treat it with different drugs. 99 percent of those treatments will show almost no benefit. However when a physician makes an educated guess, she might find one that is effective. That is the case with dexamethasone and the whole class of drugs called corticosteroids. Those include prednisone and hydrocortisone. Corticosteroids are extremely strong anti- inflammatory drugs that doctors currently use to treat Covid- 19 patients in hospitals. That is because Covid- 19 and many viral diseases cause significant inflammatory damage to cells and tissues. It is logical to use strong anti- inflammatory drugs like corticosteroids against a disease that causes intense inflammation. Corticosteroids reduce both inflammation and death from covid. Do doctors realise these also work as antiviral drugs? If so, physicians have not mentioned that, or explained how they work as antivirals. Although almost all scientists are doctors or PhDs, most physicians are not scientists. Nuclearfactor kappa- binding ( NF- kappaB, NF- kB) inhibiting drugs are not a widely known class of antiviral drugs and are never mentioned, even though they are broad- spectrum antivirals and are relatively effective against most viral illnesses. Nevertheless, they are widely used by doctors, apparently without them fully appreciating how they work, since they never mention it. In part, that may be because NF- kB inhibitor drugs were developed before the science itself was understood. Medical doctors use corticosteroids because they work, not necessarily because they are aware of all the immunologic and cellular mechanisms of how they are working. As a simple scientist who has worked to better explain HIV/ AIDS, Ebola, Zika and Covid- 19, my advice to physicians has always been, “Use what works.” Corticosteroids work. But corticosteroids have serious side effects and have a limited therapeutic window. They can be used only for two weeks.
The Oxford Medical Dictionary explains that cortisone “may cause serious side effects such as stomach ulcers and bleeding, nervous and hormone
disturbances, muscle and bone damage and eye changes.” Because of their pharmacologic power as some of the strongest inhibitors of the viral replication factor NF- kB, corticosteroids could be considered the ostrich eggs of the drugs that inhibit NF- kB.
NF- kB is jet fuel for viral replication. This powerful human protein is normally stored safely away under lock and key in the cell’s cytoplasm – the white of the cellular fried egg. When a virus infects a cell, it causes a chain reaction that unleashes NF- kB, sending it flooding into the cell’s nucleus – the yolk – where it increases the viral replication rate to hyper- overdrive. This is how viruses manipulate cellular functions to perpetuate their own existence. When the NF- kB protein is released, in addition to viral replication, it also hugely increases inflammation. More inflammation stimulates more viral replication, so this becomes a perpetuating positive feedback loop. The many drugs that inhibit NF- kB and inflammation, also inhibit viral replication, cutting this feedback loop. That is why when doctors try to reduce the negative effects of inflammation by using strong corticosteroids, unknowingly, they also inhibit viral replication, killing two birds with one stone. However, if they use corticosteroid ostrich eggs to help covid patients in hospitals, why not also use chicken, duck, and goose eggs – other, less potent NF- kB inhibiting drugs – to reduce inflammation and viral replication early on in SARS- CoV- 2 ( SARS- 2) infection to keep covid patients from requiring hospitalisation? Why do we fail to use safe, effective, affordable, early therapy against covid? It makes no sense. That is the greatest failure of the medical community in this pandemic - the failure to realise that many anti- inflammatory drugs are also broad- spectrum antiviral drugs - working by a cellular mechanism that is not commonly known – inhibiting NF- kB. Too many healthcare workers have died due to this short- sightedness or lack of knowledge. Every person familiar with HIV therapy knows protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors – PIs and RTIs. But almost no one knows about nuclear- factor kappa- binding inhibitors – NF- kBIs – the forgotten stepchild of AIDS research. About 1990 Dr. Donald Kotler of Columbia University was conducting clinical trials of 5- ASA, an aspirin- like drug. Although 5- ASA was only about 65 percent as effective as AZT in inhibiting viral replication, it was later shown by myself working with Dr. Sibanda in Zimbabwe, that aspirin ( ASA) alone is a strong booster of CD4 count, but that boost lasts only several months. Working via two separate, major mechanisms of action against
HIV disease, aspirin turned out to be more effective against HIV than AZT because AZT showed little ability to increase CD4 count, the basic measure of immune function. When asked why he abandoned his research on NF- kBIs, Kotler explained that he had been influenced by a top scientist at the Arron Diamond Institute in New York who was working on developing protease inhibitor drugs. Kotler was told there would be no need for NF- kBIs since protease inhibitors would be so much more powerful. Unfortunately, this decision to abandon research prevented Africa from acquiring a moderately effective class of antiviral drugs to use in the fight against AIDS. Africa waited for almost two decades for the wholly inadequate AZT, followed years later by the highly effective protease inhibitor class of drugs. That explains why today almost all physicians are unaware of NF- kB inhibitors. They have never heard of them. NF- kBIs disappeared into the black hole of abandoned medical research, an overlooked and forgotten yet effective class of drugs to treat HIV – and other viruses too. Scientists disregarded an extremely valuable target for therapy. NF- kBIs remain missing in action - left behind the battleline in the fog of the war on AIDS. Unfortunately, this leaves the world ignorant of these inhibitors’ ability to help overcome the assault on humanity posed by emerging viral diseases. Aspirin is fine to use, but it is far from the most effective of this broad range of drugs that includes both non- steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs – NSAIDS – and steroid drugs.
Aspirin – 5- ASA’s more famous cousin – is the drug that initiated the pharmaceutical revolution more than 120 years ago. Based on its multiple effects on the immune system, aspirin was originally acclaimed the “miracle medicine” for the multitude of benefits it provided against illness when few other effective drugs existed. Aspirin has traditionally treated viral infections, including colds and influenza, but it was not until the NF- kB protein was discovered in 1986 that scientists could fully explain how it works. Although many drugs and chemicals inhibit this proinflammatory, pro- viral protein, many of those are dangerous and can not be used. Even the highly effective corticosteroids are time limited. Several medicines that inhibit NF- kB that should be used to reduce inflammation and viral replication in covid are not used due to the limited vision of medical practitioners and national and international health authorities.
If corticosteroids are currently the ostrich eggs of anti- covid medication, aspirin surely must be the chicken egg
Tof such drugs and ibuprofen the duck egg. There are other much stronger but still safe NF- kBIs. These include indomethacin and sulfasalazine. They are the goose and swan eggs of this class of therapy. What about selenium? When one laboratory screened 10,000 different chemicals and potential therapies against SARS- 2, the virus that causes covid, the number one, most potent medicinal agent was determined to be Ebselen, a selenium compound drug. Why are we not using that numberone, most effective Ebselen? It is not available. However, its key component is available at most pharmacies – selenium. While selenium may not be the most powerful of the NF- kappaBIs mentioned above in its ability to reduce viral replication, it undoubtedly is the most beneficial overall in treating Covid- 19. Why? Early in the pandemic, South Korean researchers examined what effect the SARS- 2 virus has on nutrients in the body – the vitamins and minerals bodies need to stay healthy. Many infectious agents upset this balance. Sometimes the nutrient deficiencies they cause are major factors contributing to disease progression. This is true with viruses, many of which genetically encode selenium containing proteins, depleting the immune system of the selenium resources it needs to operate. As with HIV/ AIDS and Ebola, selenium depletion is a major factor in covid disease progression. he Korean scientists found that of the many nutrients they tested for in covid patients, only vitamin D- 3 and selenium were deficient. Early in the disease D- 3 was more deficient. As the disease progresses, D- 3 deficiency increases only marginally. Although selenium deficiency is slightly less common than D- 3 deficiency early in the disease, as the disease progresses, selenium deficiency rapidly escalates until 100 percent of those who are on ventilators, have severe disease, or who die, are selenium deficient. It is obvious that just as in AIDS, Hantavirus, Marburg, and Ebola; as viral replication increases, it drains the immune system of the selenium it needs to function. That eventually leads to sepsis and multi- organ- failure in all these viral diseases. As one scientist opined early on about selenium in HIV treatment, “selenium is the sine quo non” in HIV therapy. That means “without that, nothing” – the irreplaceable essential therapy. Indeed, selenium should be the most important medicinal agent required for Covid- 19 treatment. In 2014 in Liberia, selenium proved to be the most powerful medication for saving lives of Ebola patients. It is a great shame, a lost opportunity, that selenium has not been more widely utilised against HIV. Selenium has repeatedly been shown to have multiple benefits against HIV, including increasing CD4 count and haemoglobin; and reducing the impact of almost all opportunistic infections. Much of this knowledge has been obscured behind a dark curtain of pharmaceutical industry self- interest in excessive profits that has grossly influenced health authorities to ignore this basic, beneficial science.
On the horizon we see a new drug to treat Covid- 19, molnupiravir, a protease inhibitor that claims to reduce covid hospitalisations by up to 50 percent. Originally peddled to governments in Africa for R12,000 for a five- day course of treatment, now it may only cost R150 for five days if Bill Gates buys enough for everyone. Light at the end of the tunnel at last! But it will be some time before molnupiravir arrives here. What took them so long? Pharmaceutical companies needed to develop a new expensive drug for a new disease instead of having doctors use currently available, affordable, broad- spectrum NF- kBIs that have been sitting on pharmacists’ shelves all along. Will molnupiravir be any better than aspirin or other NF- kBIs alone? Maybe. Will it be better than NF- kBI drugs plus selenium? Perhaps equal, but probably not much better. Will it be better than selenium in treating the severe selenium deficiency that is the true hallmark of end- stage Covid- 19? Assuredly not. While corticosteroids may be the ostrich egg of NF- kBIs, they are not the most effective treatment to save lives from Covid- 19. The most effective overall treatment is selenium. It is useful from start to finish against covid. Only selenium can plug the hole of rapidly escalating selenium deficiency that high rates of viral replication and viral load cause in the end. That depletion is the underlying cause of immune system collapse, sepsis, and multi- organ- failure in endstage disease. For twenty months the world ignored the potential for early therapy for covid as people died. This represents a global failure of health authorities to act responsibly. Millions died who could have been saved by using NF- kBI drugs plus selenium from the beginning of infection. Even now molnupiravir should not be used alone. It should be used in combination with at least one NF- kBI drug, plus selenium. That will improve overall therapy and keep many more out of the hospital, saving governments billions.
The winner and still champion of antiviral disease medication remains selenium. Selenium is the key element required for the immune system. When viruses deplete enough of it a person dies unless it is quickly replaced. Not all viruses do this, but most of the ones that kill people do. Selenium is the real ostrich egg of immunity. There is no other nutrient quite like it. It is time for national and international health authorities to open their eyes and stop letting people die of covid, Ebola and AIDS, just because selenium is not a pharmaceutical drug and not absurdly profitable. It is past time world health authorities understand viral diseases better.
The next pandemic- in- waiting will be jumping the species barrier before you know it. Will humanity be prepared? Somnambulance and pharmaceutical turpitude by international health authorities is costing millions of lives. It is time they wake up and smell the coffee. Or at least eat an ostrich egg omelette made with selenium. Howard Armistead is an AIDS, Ebola, and Covid- 19 researcher. He is director of the Selenium Education and Research Centre in Johannesburg. Visit winagainstcorona. com for more information.