Historically embodying the first antipsychotic drug, chlorpromazine is currently the subject of great interest in a Parisian hospital. Indeed, initial tests have been encouraging, leading researchers to work on an upcoming clinical trial on Covid-19 patients.
Many scientists are working tirelessly to develop a treatment for Covid-19 . Let us quote for example chloroquine (antimalarial) having recently made much talk about it. Other drugs are also included, such as Kaletra (anti-HIV). But other teams are working on interferon beta (modulation of the immune response) or, more recently, on llama antibodies.
As Le Parisien explains in an article from April 5, 2020, yet another drug appears on the list of the many ongoing studies in the fight against Covid-19. This is chlorpromazine, the oldest known neuroleptic , used as early as the 1950s. Locking the Covid-19 in a "chemical jacket", such is the idea of the doctors at Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris. Remember that, at first, science did not take seriously the possibility of developing a treatment based on chlorpromazine. However, it seems that the question is again relevant.
At Sainte-Anne Hospital, psychiatric care services found that only 3% of patients had contracted Covid-19 . However, this was the case for 19% of nursing staff! Thus, this important difference put doctors on a track dating back to the 1980s. At the time, researchers had already carried out work that demonstrated an antiviral effect of chlorpromazine.
Furthermore, between 2014 and 2018, the medical literature explained that chlorpromazine in vitro played a role in inhibiting the entry of the virus in cells during the SARS (2003) and MERS (2012) epidemics. Finally, several studies conducted in the United States have shown that certain psychotropic drugs – including chlorpromazine – can block coronaviruses.
Based on these (re)discoveries concerning chlorpromazine, Sainte-Anne Hospital launched an operation called reCoVery, in which the skills of the Institut Pasteur are essential. However, the first results showed effectiveness against the coronavirus responsible for the current epidemic. These are results obtained from tests carried out on human and animal cells.
To go further, the doctors are preparing a pilot study involving 40 patients hospitalized in Covid-19 units. The selected patients will present severe forms of the coronavirus but will not be in intensive care. The first results will be available in about a month and, if successful, a larger scale study will be set up.
