COVID-19 Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

This is a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study in two distinct cohorts to evaluate the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine in the prevention of COVID-19 infection.

The aim of the study is to compare a treatment with doxycycline vs a placebo as soon as the patient is confirmed COVID-19 + and before the onset of oxygen dependence with the aim of reducing or even abolishing the cytokine explosion and thus the evolution towards a serious form of the disease which can lead to death. Three criteria support the rational use of tetrcycline in COVI-19 (1) The coronaviruses is known to bind to metalloproteases (MMPs) of the host, in particular to ensure viral survival. Tetracyclines are known to chelate zinc from MMPs. Their chelating activity may help inhibit COVID19 infection by limiting its ability to replicate in the host. (2) Tetracyclines may also be able to inhibit the replication of positive-polarity single-stranded RNA viruses, such as COVID19 (demonstrated on the dengue virus). (3) In addition, tetracyclines are modulators of innate immunity (anti-inflammatory activity), a property used in the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases for many years. These modulating effects are noted on several targets of innate immunity: They can decrease the expression of NFKB, the release of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6, inhibit granulomas inflammatory and free radical release. Tetracyclines could therefore participate in limiting the cytokine release induced by COVID19. Their lipophilic nature and their strong pulmonary penetration could allow them to inhibit viral replication.

Hydroxychloroquine, a derivative of chloroquine (an antimalarial drug) with a weak immunosuppressive effect, is prescribed by some teams alone or in combination with azithromycin. No randomized controlled trials have demonstrated its efficacy, particularly in primary care in the early stages of the disease. However, currently available data suggest better efficacy if treatment is given early in the disease, before symptoms worsen. To date, the majority of COVID-19 patients treated in outpatient care, particularly in general practice, represent the majority of COVID-19 patients. It is essential to evaluate, in primary care, the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin in Covid-19 patients in order to be able to implement this therapeutic strategy as soon as the first symptoms appear. We realize a randomized, controlled, open superiority trial, in 2 parallel groups (ratio 1:1).The main objective is to assess the efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin in COVID-19 patients in primary care, in add-on to standard of care, on unfavorable outcome defined by the onset of at least one of the following between D0 and D14: hospitalization, death or percutaneous O² saturation ≤ 92% in ambient air.

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first merged in China in December 2019, is now becoming a Public Health Emergency, recently confirmed as a pandemic disease by the World Health Organization. In particular, since February 2020, a rapidly growing number of cases has been identified in Italy. The clinical picture of ranges from asymptomatic cases, mild upper respiratory tract infections to severe pneumonia with respiratory failure and death. In most severe cases, COVID-19 disease may be complicated by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock and multiorgan failure. It results fundamental to early identify those subjects who rapidly may worsen their clinical status, often requiring an intensive care unit (ICU) admission. It has been showed that, mainly in more severe forms of SARS-Cov-2 disease, there is the development of an hyperinflammatory status resembling a cytokine storm syndrome, as already reported in SARS patients. A recent study by Haung et al. reported that patients with COVID-19 infection showed high amounts of IL1B, IFN-gamma, IP10 and MCP1, probably linked to activated T-helper1 (Th1) cell responses. Those requiring ICU admission had higher levels of cytokines than those subjects not requiring ICU admission, thus suggesting that cytokine storm was associated with disease severity. A similarity between cytokine profile of COVID-19 disease and secondary haemophagocytic syndrome (sHLH) has been reported. Therefore, it was suggested to screen all patients with severe COVID-19 infection both for hyperinflammatory markers (like ferritin), and the HScore commonly used to generate a probability for diagnosis of sHLH (8), which includes some laboratory parameters like triglycerides, fibrinogen, ferritin, serum aspartate aminostransferase. Based on our experience on patients affected by pneumonia from Covid19, we have observed that those subjects with a more severe prognosis might have some predictive markers. We intend to verify if these markers can identify those subjects with Covid19 infection who need a more intensive therapy and to find a prognosis score.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the end of 2019 has seen numerous patients experiencing severe acute lung injury (ALI), which developed into severe respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The mortality was as high as 20% -40%. Due to the lack of effective antiviral treatments, supporting treatment is the predominant therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia. Its cure is essentially dependent on the patient's immunity. While the immune system eliminates the virus, numerous inflammatory cytokines are produced and a cytokine storm occurs in severe cases. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play an important role in injury repair and immune regulation, showing advantageous prospects in the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia. MSCs prevent cytokine storms by retarding the TNF-α pathway, alleviate sepsis by modulating macrophages, neutrophils, NK cells, DC cells, T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes. After infused, MSCs aggregate in the lungs, improve the lung microenvironment, protect alveolar epithelia, and improve pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary function.

Efficacy of Sunlight Activated Synthetic Porphyrin in COVID-19 Infected Patients (SnPPIX) Mahmoud ELkazzaz(1),Rokia yousry abdelaziz sallam(2) _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Abstract : The novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is an infectious acute respiratory caused by the novel coronavirus. The virus is a positive-strand RNA virus with high homology to bat coronavirus. Depending on published study in which , conserved domain analysis, homology modeling, and molecular docking were used to compare the biological roles of specific proteins of the novel coronavirus. The principal investigator demonstrated according to previous researches that some viral structural and nonstructural proteins could bind to the porphyrin, respectively. At the same time, orf1ab, ORF10 and ORF3a proteins coordinated to attack heme on the 1-beta chain of hemoglobin, COVID-19 binds to the porphyrin of haem and displaces iron and a study denonestrated that Covid-19 could cause acquired acute porphyria which is the condition in which there is excess accumulation of porphyrin intermediate metabolites. This point can be taken advantage of X-ray induced visible luminescence of porphyrin for producing of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).Many porphyrins are benign in the dark but are transformed by sunlight into caustic, flesh-eating toxins Porphyrins have been used for photodynamic therapy (PDT) against a wide range of targets like bacteria, viruses and tumor cells It has been reported that ROS-based inactivation of viruses may occur due to several reasons, such as protein oxidation, single strand breaks in the RNA genome and protein-RNA crosslinking. Since ROS-based inactivation has a multi-targeted mechanism, it is much less likely that a virus would be able to develop resistance against it. Recently, porphyrins, already in use as photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), were a study target to applications in medical area, namely as possible contrast agents in MRI. could be observed some examples of porphyrin derivatives already study as MRI contrast media. Low dark toxicity, neoplastic tissue affinity and synthetic accessibility are some of the important properties that contribute for its selection. In MRI studies was found that CM based on paramagnetic metalloporphyrins showed higher affinity for neoplastic tissues, observed by increased relaxation time of the neoplastic tissues, which is reflected on an increase in MRI signal and consequently in a better neoplastic lesions detection. A study demonestrated that The sulfonated tetranaphthyl porphyrin contrast agents in MRI (TNapPS), sulfonated tetra-anthracenyl porphyrin (TAnthPS), and sulfonated 2,6-difluoro-meso-tetraphenylporphine [TPP(2,6-F2)S] and its copper chelate [TPP(2,6-F2)S,Cu], which reduced HIV infection by 99, 96, 94, and 96%, respectively. Previous studies which showed that Covid -19 binds to the porphyrin of haem and displaces iron in addition to Sulfonated porphyrins and light-stimulated Sn- protoporphyrin IX have broad antiviral activity against more distinct types of viruses, Co-protoporphyrin IX and Sn-protoporphyrin IX inactivate Zika, Chikungunya and other arboviruses by targeting the viral envelope Porphyrins are amphipathic molecules able to interact with membranes and absorb light, being widely used in photodynamic therapy. Previously, we showed that heme, Co-protoporphyrin IX (CoPPIX) and Sn-protoporphyrin IX (SnPPIX) directly inactivate DENV and YFV infectious particles. Here we demonstrate that the antiviral activity of these porphyrins can be broadened to CHIKV, ZIKV, Mayaro virus, Sindb is virus and Vesicular Stomatitis virus. Porphyrin treatment causes viral envelope protein loss, affecting viral morphology, adsorption and entry into target cells , Finally, the principal investigator expect that viral load will be declined with sunlight because In particular, porphyrins absorb essentially all the UV/visible light wavelengths in the emission spectrum of the sun; hence they are active at very low doses . Keywords: COVID 2019 ,Infection, Sulfonated porphyrins and X-ray induced visible luminescence of porphyrin

This study is designed to compare the efficacy of detection of COVID-19 infection using the serology test in blood sample and the PCR-based test in the nasopharyngeal (NP) and sputum sample. Furthermore, it aims to evaluate the temporal trend of appearance of IgM and IgG in blood.

Few studies have reported the efficacy of HCQ in reducing the viral load and improving the severity of symptoms in hospitalized COVID-19 cases with serious respiratory infection. However, the prophylactic benefits of HCQ has not been clearly defined yet.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging pandemic in 2020 caused by a novel coronavirus named SARS-CoV2. Diabetes confers a significant additional risk for COVID-19 patients. Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed ubiquitously in many tissues. In addition to its effect on glucose levels, DPP-4 has various effects on the immune system and several diseases, including lung diseases. This trial aims to assess the safety and efficacy of linagliptin, a DPP-4 inhibitor, in the treatment of COVID-19. The trial will be randomized without blinding, with one are treated by insulin only for glucose balance and the other by insulin and linagliptin. The trial will assess the effects of linagliptin on different measures of COVID-19 recovery.

Northern Italy, and particularly Lombardy, is one of the regions of the world mostly affected by COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. To investigate the still largely unknown pathophysiology of this disease, we have built a consortium of Italian Hospitals to include a large cohort of COVID-19 patients from mild out-patients managed by GPs to inpatients developing mild, moderate or severe disease assessed both in hospital and at a 3-6 month follow-up visit). Consortium partners have a wide expertise to allow for 1) comprehensive assessment of risk factors for severe COVID-19 syndrome; 2) study the pathophysiology of its cardio-respiratory manifestations; 3) estimate risk scores also with artificial intelligence and 4) assess its clinical immunoinflammatory and cardiorespiratory sequelae in discharged patients at short term follow-up. To this aim, we will 1. Enroll around 5500 COVID-19 patients (1000 outpatients and 4500 in-patients), which will allow to: 1.1 Phenotype patients with COVID-19 of variable severity 1.2 Assess the prevalence of COVID-19 among GPs in relation with their use of PPE 1.3 Evaluate the impact of patients' demographic and clinical characteristics COVID-19 severity 2. Use an electronic CRF (on RedCap) to record clinical, biohumoral and imaging data of inpatients with COVID-19 of various severity to explore the prognostic and pathophysiological role of immunologic factors, activation of blood coagulation, endothelial dysfunction, inflammatory response, genetic (ni particular X-linked), hormonal and metabolic factors, comorbidities and acute cardiac damage. Blood samples will be collected. We will also use machine learning techniques to develop multivariable models for patients' risk stratification 3. A follow-up visit at 3-6 months after discharge will be performed to identify residual clinical consequences that might affect long-term prognosis.