Annabelle Krause - "The Antidepressant Fluvoxamine Could Keep Mild COVID-19 from Worsening."

Annabelle Krause

AP Bio/Current Event 12

2/2/21

Landhuis, Esther. “The Antidepressant Fluvoxamine Could Keep Mild COVID-19 from Worsening.” Science News, 1 Feb. 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-antidepressant-fluvoxamine-treatment.

In the article, The antidepressant fluvoxamine could keep mild COVID-19 from worsening, the author, Esther Landhuis presents the evidence from studies and preliminary clinical trials that suggest that fluvoxamine could help control COVID-19 symptoms.  This study was conducted in Berkeley, California, where a group of people affected by a COVID-19 outbreak opted to take the drug to test if it would mitigate their symptoms.  The results were astounding and quite promising; “[o]f those who opted to take fluvoxamine, none got sicker, and within two weeks, their symptoms cleared. In comparison, 12.5 percent of those who turned down the drug wound up hospitalized” (Landhuis).  Although this was a relatively small and narrow (possible environmental biases could have existed in this particular test), it is certainly promising enough to warrant ongoing verification and research from larger clinical trials.  The Fluvoxamine currently costs approximately $10, making it quite accessible compared to other, more costly treatments.  A physician, David Seftel, and an infectious disease physician-scientist, David Boulware, tested fluvoxamine during an outbreak around Thanksgiving.  They had heard about it from a presentation by COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund, which supports research to identify existing drugs that could be used to treat COVID-19.  In this presentation, the results from a fund-support trial were shared.  In their trial, they observed that of the 80 COVID-19 placed patients on a two-week fluvoxamine course, none fell seriously ill, compared to 6 of 72 patients (8.3%) who took a placebo pill.  Beyond clinical trials, Seftel sought to investigate the biochemistry behind the drug that would support the trial’s hypothesis that fluvoxamine helped with COVID-19 recovery.  He found that the drug “activate[s] a protein called the sigma-1 receptor that prevents production of chemical messengers that exacerbate inflammatory reaction” (Landhuis).  Research had already proven that this sigma-1 receptor response lowered infection rates with COVID-19 by “squelch[ing out] out-of-control immune activity and prevent[ing] blood clots” (Landhuis).  Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are testing fluvoxamine in a larger, nationwide trial with a more random sample.  The goal is to collect data from 880 people.  Overall, the article concludes that fluvoxamine, though not necessarily proven to help, likely does and can be used in individual cases prior to its confirmation as a treatment in order to help patients at risk of bad symptoms and outcomes. 

This article is extremely relevant right now, especially to Westchester, as we experience a spike in COVID-19 cases.  It is important for us as citizens to stay informed about treatments and appraised on their viability.  Our lives have been irrevocably impacted by COVID-19 for the last eleven months, and any treatment that may help ease symptoms and prevent further deaths are very important for the greater societal good.  If COVID-19 was significantly less likely to end in death or terrible symptoms with long lasting side effects, it would be a much less scary sickness.  Although somewhat unlikely, discoveries like that of fluvoxamine on COVID-19 symptoms could help the United States and other countries to open up quicker than waiting for everyone to receive both doses of the vaccine.

This article was quite easy to understand and succinct in explaining the science.  I appreciated that they explained complicated concepts, like the biochemical justification for fluvoxamine use as a mitigator of COVID-19 symptoms, in simple terms that made it possible for this very important issue to be generally understood.  I personally would have appreciated it if the author had given more of their own commentary on the relevance of these findings and the trials rather than leaving it for the reader to reason out.  I understand that there really is no conclusion to be drawn as of yet, so it may be difficult for the author to extrapolate, but it would have been more clear and had a stronger message if the author had done so.  It also would have been interesting for the author to investigate how the affordability of fluvoxamine could be relevant to making COVID-19 treatments more readily available and accessible.  Overall, it was a very interesting piece that explained a complicated idea very well.