2 coronavirus patients taken off ventilators after experimental treatment

Two coronavirus patients in New York City were treated with a new drug 'fast-tracked' for HIV and breast cancer - and they went from being on ventilators in the ICU to regular hospital in a matter of days.

Based on the results of a small initial trial, biotech firm CytoDyn believes their drug, leronlimab, has potential for treating patients severely ill with coronavirus.

They believe that the drug can quell the 'cytokine storm' - a deluge of immune cells that can be as damaging as the infection itself - that triggers life-threatening lung inflammation in coronavirus patients.

Leronlimab has only been tested in seven critically ill patients thus far, but two are now free from ventilators, and another two more show signs that the severe inflammation sending their lungs into organ failure are subsiding.

There are no approved treatments for coronavirus, but the CytoDyn's drug is among the latest being tested to help save the lives of Americans with coronavirus, of which there are now well over 100,000 - and if it continues to show promise it could get FDA approval in as little as little as six weeks.

Developing a drug that targets the coronavirus itself take time and money - both of which are in short supply in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scientists, universities, and the World Health Organization are all racing to test existing drugs or those in development against the virus that has already killed more than 1,500 Americans.

Among those is a drug that has already been fast-tracked by the US Food and Drug Administration for treating another virus - HIV - as well as cancer.

Leronlimab is already in trials and showing promise for treating HIV.

But scientists CytoDyn think that their drug's benefit for coronavirus patients is not an antiviral one.

What's killing coronavirus patients is a complication of the virus: pneumonia.

The virus binds to lung cells, and the immune system kicks into high gear to fight the infection with every weapon it has, despite the fact that we do not have antibodies specific to COVID at the ready.

This flood of immune cells, including cytokines - the immune system's communication system.

Cytokines tell the immune system to send a deluge of chemicals from white blood cells to attack the infection, causing inflammation.

When inflammation gets out of control and fluid starts to fill the alveoli in the lungs, a patient develops pneumonia.

In the case of many of the sickest coronavirus patients, this leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a condition that requires ventilation, and even ... (Read more)

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