Looks like it is.  No side effects noted for the many trials so far.  BC is   
   shipping some to Quebec for use on their many, many patients.   
      
   Let this be the start of the end . . .   
   ____________________________________   
   CTV News - May 31   
      
      
   Could a simple gas produced by our bodies be used to treat COVID-19?   
      
   Canadian trials underway   
      
   TORONTO -- In the race to find an effective, low-cost treatment for COVID-19,   
   a powerful molecule that has long captured the attention of medical   
   researchers is gaining popularity.   
      
   Nitric oxide, a two-part nanomolecule made in the cells that line the blood   
   vessels, is being examined as an experimental treatment for the disease caused   
   by the novel coronavirus. Studies show it plays a role in helping to relax   
   blood vessels and open    
   the airways in the lung -- critical in treating those with advanced cases.   
      
   Among the companies vying to harness this naturally produced gas is a Canadian   
   firm that is experimenting with using nitric oxide nasal spray or mouth   
   gargles that may help those at a high risk of becoming infected from   
   contracting COVID-19 in the first    
   place.   
      
   SaNOtize Research has been given a $400,000 grant from the National Research   
   Council and is now conducting phase two of a clinical trial on people at high   
   risk for contracting COVID-19, including front-line workers, and those with   
   mild symptoms of the    
   disease.   
      
   The trial, which started in British Columbia, is being expanded to   
   participants in Quebec come June 1, with talk of an Ontario-based study in the   
   near future.   
      
   “It’s really important we get this trial done as soon as possible and then   
   we can work with regulatory authority, then we can turn it around in three to   
   four months,” Chris Miller, SaNOtize Chief Scientific Officer, told CTV News.   
      
   Nitric Oxide has many properties -- it’s produced by cells that line our   
   blood vessels to helps control blood pressure and open the airways in the   
   lung, allowing more oxygen to be absorbed.   
      
   But researchers have also found nitric oxide has a antibacterial and antiviral   
   effect.   
      
   SaNOtize's nasal spray is designed to “disinfect” your upper airway using   
   nitric oxide. Initial tests of the company's product suggest that the spray   
   inactivated more than 99.9 per cent of SARs-CoV-2, the virus that causes   
   COVID-19, within two    
   minutes during laboratory tests.   
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
      
   “You’re using a hand sanitizer to disinfect your hands. It’s a similar   
   idea, but instead of a hand sanitizer, it’s a nasal spray to disinfect your   
   upper airway,” SaNOtize CEO Gilly Regev told CTV Vancouver.   
      
   With no confirmed therapeutic treatment for COVID-19, researchers around the   
   world have turned their attention to the molecule once dubbed “molecule of   
   the year.”   
      
   Discovered in the 1980s, nitric oxide is already approved for use in helping   
   improve oxygen levels in premature babies and is used in some cardiac   
   procedures and drugs for erectile dysfunction.   
      
   One of the studies suggesting it may have potential as a tool against COVID-19   
   is a report by Dr. Roham Zamanian, a pulmonologist at Stanford Health Care in   
   California. His team gave nitric oxide to a woman suffering from pulmonary   
   arterial hypertension    
   who had also developed COVID-19.   
      
   Doctors treated her at home, adding the gas to her oxygen supply.   
      
   Over the course of 11 days, the patient improved and didn’t need hospital   
   care.   
      
   “We saw an improvement in her symptoms, we saw an improvement in her ability   
   to walk distances over six minutes, which is our usual test of cardiopulmonary   
   reserve,” Zamanian told CTV News.   
      
   “We were able to document that she was feeling better and better as we   
   provided her with the nitric oxide, until day 15, 16 where we want to begin to   
   wean the medication off.”   
      
   Her recovery encouraged Zamanian so much that his centre is now launching a   
   study of inhaled nitric oxide in hospitalized patients and those recovering at   
   home   
      
   Another study is underway at the University Health Network in Toronto to see   
   whether high dose inhaled nitric oxide given in hospital can reduce levels of   
   the virus and improve breathing in COVID-19 patients on ventilators.   
      
   Scientists in Boston and Louisiana are also giving several hundred severely   
   ill patients nitric oxide, with preliminary results expected in the coming   
   weeks. Several devices that produce nitric oxide have also been given the   
   green light for testing in    
   the U.S.   
      
   Researchers say side effects from the gas are minimal and they hope to have   
   more data on the various approaches later this year, before the expected   
   second wave of the disease.   
      
   Meanwhile, watching from the sidelines, is one of the three Nobel Prize   
   winning scientists responsible for discovering the molecule some two   
   deca​des ago.   
      
   “There's every reason to believe that the nitric oxide will work in the   
   present coronavirus situation,” American pharmacologist Lou Ignarro told CTV   
   News.   
      
   “That's going to be worth much more than the Nobel Prize I will be so   
   happy.  You know I'm 79-years-old and this would just be the, the most   
   fantastic thing I could hear.”   
   ____________________   
      
   https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/could-a-simple-gas-pro   
   uced-by-our-bodies-be-used-to-treat-covid-19-canadian-trials-underway-1.4962611   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)