Could HIV drug treat Normal Corona Virus? [closed]

Question

SMS Hospital of Rajasthan treated three patients of Corona virus with a combination of two anti HIV drugs. Rohit Kumar Singh, Additional chief secretary of Medical and health said:-

"All this while, our doctors were in touch with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Drug Controller General of India. Since the structure of coronavirus is similar to that of HIV to some extent, so they tried a combination of the two anti-HIV drugs," he added.

"It appears it (combination of drugs) is working because three patients have recovered. Good thing is that all the three patients are elderly and the successful result of the drug on patients of such age is a big thing,"

I want to know that is there any research or proof about this. Could HIV drug treat Covid-19?

Answer 1

Pharmacologic drug classes include:

Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs)

Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs)

Protease inhibitors (PIs)

Integrase inhibitors (INSTIs)

Fusion inhibitors (FIs)

Chemokine receptor antagonists (CCR5 antagonists)

     ***Protease inhibitors (PIs) are a class of antiviral drugs that are widely used to treat HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. Protease inhibitors prevent viral replication by selectively binding to viral proteases (e.g. HIV-1 protease) and blocking proteolytic cleavage of protein precursors that are necessary for the production of infectious viral particles.

Protease inhibitors that have been developed and are currently used in clinical practice include:

Antiretroviral HIV-1 protease inhibitors — class stem –navir

Amprenavir

Atazanavir

Darunavir

Fosamprenavir

Indinavir

Lopinavir

Nelfinavir

Ritonavir

Saquinavir

Tipranavir

Hepatitis C virus NS3/4A protease inhibitors — class stem –previr

Asunaprevir

Boceprevir

Grazoprevir

Glecaprevir

Paritaprevir

Simeprevir

Telaprevir

Given the specificity of the target of these drugs there is the risk, as in antibiotics, of the development of drug-resistant mutated viruses. To reduce this risk it is common to use several different drugs together that are each aimed at different targets.

In the race to find effective treatments or a cure for COVID-19, researchers are now testing antiretrovirals used to treat HIV such as lopinavir, ritonavir, and another protease inhibitor called darunavir. 

There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that anti-HIV drugs may be effective. Thai doctors gave lopinavir and ritonavir in combination with a flu drug to a Chinese coronavirus patient, who tested negative for the virus within two days. In Japan, a patient from Wuhan, China, was treated with just the two HIV drugs and her fever subsided within five days of being admitted to the hospital. And a report in the journal JAMA in March 2020 showed that three of five patients recovered after being treated with the same two drugs.

These reports are encouraging, but public health experts caution that more testing is needed before concluding that the HIV drugs can effectively treat COVID-19.