Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun 7;21(1):536.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-06241-1.

Pathogenesis-based preexposure prophylaxis associated with a low risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers at a designated COVID-19 hospital: a pilot study

Michael V Dubina  1   2 , Veronika V Gomonova  3 , Anastasia E Taraskina  3 , Natalia V Vasilyeva  3 , Sergey A Sayganov  3
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Pathogenesis-based preexposure prophylaxis associated with a low risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers at a designated COVID-19 hospital: a pilot study

Michael V Dubina et al. BMC Infect Dis. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Background: At present, no agents are known to be effective at preventing COVID-19. Based on current knowledge of the pathogenesis of this disease, we suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection might be attenuated by directly maintaining innate pulmonary redox, metabolic and dilation functions using well-tolerated medications that are known to serve these functions, specifically, a low-dose aerosolized combination of glutathione, inosine and potassium.

Methods: From June 1 to July 10, 2020, we conducted a pilot, prospective, open-label, single-arm, single-center study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with aerosolized combination medication (ACM) on the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 positivity in 99 healthcare workers (HCWs) at a hospital designated for treating COVID-19 patients. We compared SARS-CoV-2 positivity in ACM users to retrospective data collected from 268 untreated HCWs at the same hospital. Eligible participants received an aerosolized combination of 21.3 mg/ml glutathione and 8.7 mg/ml inosine in 107 mM potassium solution for 14 days. The main outcome was the frequency of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases, defined as individuals with positive genetic or immunological tests within 28 days of the study period.

Results: SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 2 ACM users (2, 95% CI: 0.3 to 7.1%), which was significantly less than the incidence in nonusers, at 24 (9, 95% CI: 5.8 to 13.0%; P = 0.02). During the PrEP period, solicited adverse events occurred in five participants; all were mild and transient reactions.

Conclusions: Our findings might be used either to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection or to support ongoing and new research into more effective treatments for COVID-19.

Trial registration: ISRCTN, ISRCTN34160010 . Registered 14 September 2020 - Retrospectively registered.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus disease; PrEP; Preexposure prophylaxis; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram showing the progression of healthy subjects throughout the study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Cumulative SARS-CoV-2 incidence in HCWs. HCWs – healthcare workers. ACM – aerosolized combination medication. PrEP – preexposure prophylaxis with ACM
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J, Zhao X, Huang B, Shi W, Lu R, Niu P, Zhan F, Ma X, Wang D, Xu W, Wu G, Gao GF, Tan W, China Novel Coronavirus Investigating and Research Team A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(8):727–733. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. WHO . Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation reports. World Health Organization. 2020.
    1. Guan WJ, Ni ZY, Hu Y, Liang WH, Ou CQ, He JX, Liu L, Shan H, Lei CL, Hui DSC, du B, Li LJ, Zeng G, Yuen KY, Chen RC, Tang CL, Wang T, Chen PY, Xiang J, Li SY, Wang JL, Liang ZJ, Peng YX, Wei L, Liu Y, Hu YH, Peng P, Wang JM, Liu JY, Chen Z, Li G, Zheng ZJ, Qiu SQ, Luo J, Ye CJ, Zhu SY, Zhong NS, China Medical Treatment Expert Group for Covid-19 Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(18):1708–1720. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2002032. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu C, Chen X, Cai Y, et al. Risk factors associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome and death in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia in Wuhan. China JAMA Intern Med. 2020;180:1–11. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.4346. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hunter E, Price DA, Murphy E, van der Loeff IS, Baker KF, Lendrem D, Lendrem C, Schmid ML, Pareja-Cebrian L, Welch A, Payne BAI, Duncan CJA. First experience of COVID-19 screening of health-care workers in England. Lancet. 2020;395(10234):e77–e78. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30970-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed