Ivermectin: a multifaceted drug of Nobel prize-honoured distinction with indicated efficacy against a new global scourge, COVID-19. (September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Santin, A.D.; Scheim, D.E.; McCullough, P.A.; Yagisawa, M.; Borody, T.J.
• Is Part Of: New microbes and new infections. Volume 43(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-09
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- H. pylori -- ivermectin -- SARS-CoV-2 -- spike protein; Medical microbiology -- Periodicals; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; Infection -- Periodicals; Microbiology -- Periodicals; Communicable Diseases -- Periodicals; Infection -- Periodicals; 616.9041
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nmni.2021.100924
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2052-2975

Abstract

Abstract: In 2015, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, in its only award for treatments of infectious diseases since six decades prior, honoured the discovery of ivermectin (IVM), a multifaceted drug deployed against some of the world's most devastating tropical diseases. Since March 2020, when IVM was first used against a new global scourge, COVID-19, more than 20 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have tracked such inpatient and outpatient treatments. Six of seven meta-analyses of IVM treatment RCTs reporting in 2021 found notable reductions in COVID-19 fatalities, with a mean 31% relative risk of mortality vs. controls. During mass IVM treatments in Peru, excess deaths fell by a mean of 74% over 30 days in its ten states with the most extensive treatments. Reductions in deaths correlated with the extent of IVM distributions in all 25 states with p < 0.002. Sharp reductions in morbidity using IVM were also observed in two animal models, of SARS-CoV-2 and a related betacoronavirus. The indicated biological mechanism of IVM, competitive binding with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, is likely non-epitope specific, possibly yielding full efficacy against emerging viral mutant strains.