Cicconetti Franco, Sestili Piero, Madiai Valeria, Albertini Maria Cristina, Campanella Luigi, Coppari Sofia, Fraternale Daniele, Saunders Bryan, Teodori Laura
Department of Emergency DEA-Surgery, University of Roma "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy.
Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy.
PeerJ. 2021 Oct 11;9:e12227. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12227. eCollection 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its virus variants continue to pose a serious and long-lasting threat worldwide. To combat the pandemic, the world's largest COVID-19 vaccination campaign is currently ongoing. As of July 19 2021, 26.2% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine (1.04 billion), and one billion has been fully vaccinated, with very high vaccination rates in countries like Israel, Malta, and the UEA. Conversely, only 1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose with examples of vaccination frequency as low as 0.07% in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is thus of paramount importance that more research on alternate methods to counter cell infection and propagation is undertaken that could be implemented in low-income countries. Moreover, an adjunctive therapeutic intervention would help to avoid disease exacerbation in high-rate vaccinated countries too. Based on experimental biochemical evidence on viral cell fusion and propagation, herein we identify (i) extracellular pH (epH), (ii) temperature, and (iii) humidity and osmolarity as critical factors. These factors are here in discussed along with their implications on mucus thick layer, proteases, abundance of sialic acid, vascular permeability and exudate/edema. Heated, humidified air containing sodium bicarbonate has long been used in the treatment of certain diseases, and here we argue that warm inhalation of sodium bicarbonate might successfully target these endpoints. Although we highlight the molecular/cellular basis and the signalling pathways to support this intervention, we underscore the need for clinical investigations to encourage further research and clinical trials. In addition, we think that such an approach is also important in light of the high mutation rate of this virus originating from a rapid increase.
新冠疫情及其病毒变种在全球范围内持续构成严重且持久的威胁。为抗击疫情,目前全球正在开展规模最大的新冠疫苗接种行动。截至2021年7月19日,全球26.2%的人口已接种至少一剂新冠疫苗(10.4亿人),10亿人已完成全程接种,以色列、马耳他和阿联酋等国的疫苗接种率很高。相反,低收入国家只有1%的人接种了至少一剂疫苗,刚果民主共和国的接种率低至0.07%。因此,开展更多关于对抗细胞感染和传播替代方法的研究至关重要,这些方法可在低收入国家实施。此外,辅助性治疗干预也有助于避免高接种率国家的疾病恶化。基于关于病毒细胞融合和传播的实验生化证据,我们在此确定(i)细胞外pH值(epH)、(ii)温度以及(iii)湿度和渗透压为关键因素。本文将讨论这些因素及其对黏液厚层、蛋白酶、唾液酸丰度、血管通透性和渗出液/水肿的影响。含碳酸氢钠的温热潮湿空气长期以来一直用于治疗某些疾病,我们认为吸入温热的碳酸氢钠可能成功针对这些目标。尽管我们强调支持这种干预的分子/细胞基础和信号通路,但我们强调需要进行临床研究以鼓励进一步的研究和临床试验。此外,鉴于这种病毒因快速变异而具有高突变率,我们认为这种方法也很重要。